Foreword

Although the Long Island Rail Road traces its history back to1836
and is the third oldest line in the country, only two previous accounts
of it have appeared: Elizur Hinsdale's brief history published in 1898,
and Felix Reifschneider's longer and much fuller work published in 1922.
In the forty years that have passed no comprehensive, intensively
researched work has appeared.

The present volume seeks to present the full story of one of the
Long Island Rail Road's first competitors: the South Side Railroad of
Long Island, which operated the present Montauk Division as an
independent railroad from 1867 to 1876.

After the lapse of almost a hundred years very few original
sources have survived; only a single printed prospectus for a bond issue
remains from South Side days. It has been necessary, therefore, to rely
heavily on the contemporary newspapers for a day-to-day account of the
road. Every surviving newspaper that published in any locality served by
the South Side R.R. has been systematically searched for material. These
include: THE PICKET, (Rockville Centre), 1865-1870; SOUTH
SIDE SIGNAL, (Babylon), 1869-1880; FLUSHING DAILY TIMES, 1875-1880;
BROOKLYN DAILY TIMES, 1863-1880; NEWTOWN REGISTER, 1873-1880;
LONG ISLAND FARMER, (Jamaica), 1863-1871; LONG ISLAND DEMOCRAT, (Jamaica)
1863-1883. The valuable files of the PATCHOGUE ADVANCE and the
SOUTH SIDE OBSERVER (Rockville Centre) for the 1870's are
unfortunately lost.

A considerable body of new information on the railroad is brought
forward here, much of it not known before. Even with this new accession
of information, the reader may sometimes feel that a certain area of the
road's history remains obscure; this may well be true, but, barring the
improbable appearance of important new sources, we must be grateful that
even this much has survived the destructive effects of fire, negligence
and the many changes of administration.

It is hoped that this volume will be the first of several
successive histories covering the full Long Island Rail Road and its
predecessors; a second book on the Flushing, North Shore & Central
Railroad is now in preparation. My thanks are due to Mr. William Rugen,
who has furnished all the illustrations, and to Mr. Felix Reifschneider,
who has read the manuscript, made many valuable suggestions, and
arranged for the publication of the work.

CHAPTER I: The South Side RR Becomes a Reality

When the LIRR was first built and opened through to Greenport in
1844, its projectors thought of it as a direct route through to Boston,
and somewhat a means of opening up to colonization the endless pine
barrens through the center of the island. Historically, however, the
oldest settlements on L.I. have been on the western end and all along
the south shore. The original line of the LIRR, therefore, once it left
Jamaica, passed through an uninhabited wilderness and served none of the
old established and populous villages strung out along the south shore.
Persons wishing to reach Brooklyn and Manhattan by rail had to make
their way along the primitive roads inland to one of the lonely LIRR
stations in the center of the island, and as this traffic grew, various
stage coach routes sprang up to meet the increasing demand for public
transportation. Several lines like the Deer Park-Babylon stage and the
Hempstead-Freeport stage ran on regular schedules and carried many
passengers.

In the 1850's transportation on the south side was further improved
when the Plank Road companies took over the old wagon tracks and
converted them into planked toll roads. The Merrick & Jamaica Plank
Rd. Co. improved the Merrick Road between Jamaica and Merrick, while the
South Oyster Bay Tpk. Co. improved the road from Hempstead to Merrick
and on to Babylon (the present Babylon Turnpike and the Merrick Road).
By 1860 there was a regular stage coach line between Amityville and
Fulton Ferry which made two round trips a week, each round trip
occupying three days, the middle day being allowed to rest the horses
and to let the passengers transact their business. The stage was drawn
by three horses and a relay was kept at Hempstead. It carried the mails
for all the villages and the freights.

As the country entered the Civil War era, it became apparent that the
stage coach could no longer meet the needs of the growing island. In
1860, therefore, a group of Long Island and Manhattan capitalists
resolved to build a railroad from the East River to Patchogue all along
the south shore of the island. The directors and president of the LIRR
had been approached on several occasions to build such a road, or at
least extend branches to the big villages, but they had always refused.
ဠIt became clear that if a south side road was to be built at all, it
would have to be built by independent capital.

Charles Fox of Baldwin was the leading spirit behind the organization
of the new road. A wealthy man owning much real estate in Manhattan, a
senior partner in the big clothing house of F. B. Baldwin and an
alderman in New York, Fox induced a group of other wealthy men to invest
in the new project. The Civil War forced the scheme into abeyance until
1865 because of the instability of the money market and the
impossibility of obtaining iron. With the coming of peace in the spring
of 1865, Fox and his men plunged energetically into the organization and
building of their South Side Railroad of L.I. By summer the stocks and
bonds of the new road had been printed and were placed on the market. As
fast as the securities were sold, the road was to be built and it was
hoped that ground would be broken in October.

In the fine Fall weather of 1865 the directors of the road personally
visited all the men of means of their acquaintance along the south side
towns. Next to Charles Fox, one of the road's most vigorous supporters
was Willett Charlick, brother of Oliver Charlick, president of the Long
Island R.R., and the deadliest enemy of the whole South Side RR scheme.
Willett Charlick lived in Freeport and canvassed that area along with
director Samuel DeMott; James Tuttle covered the Rockville Centre area
and Martin Willets did the same for Babylon.

Stock and bond sales were slow in coming in. Some persons insisted
the road would not pay, while others doubted that it would be built at
all. It was hoped to raise by public subscription $250,000 in all. As
the year 1865 drew to a close, all but about $40,000 had been paid in.

In January 1866 the road was formally incorporated and it was planned
to begin construction as soon as the frost was out of the ground.
Naturally enough, Charles Fox was elected president of the new
organization; the treasurer was William J. Rushmore, president of the
Atlantic National Bank in Brooklyn and a resident of Hempstead, and
Alexander McCue, Corporation Counsel of Brooklyn, became treasurer. The
vice-president was A. J. Bergen, member of the Assembly for Suffolk.

In March 1866 Oliver Charlick's friend, the "Long Island
Star" ridiculed the new road because the articles of association
and the maps had not yet been filed, but work went on just the same.
Sales of stock continued encouraging and best' of all, many landholders
were donating the right of way.

In April 1866 the road was advertised for contract. Sealed proposals
were receivable at the company's office at 68 Wall St., New York, for
grading, bridging, masonry, furnishing and laying of ties and rails for
34 miles of line from Jamaica to Islip. Plans and specifications were
available as of May 1. Samuel McElroy was named Chief Engineer. Bids
were to be closed on May 12.

The successful bidders were Shanahan, Meyers & Co. and the
contract set April 1, 1867 as the completion date. The contractors
started work on May 22 and immediately subcontracted the road into six
sections, as follows:

Jamaica to Springfield, 4 miles

Springfield to Rockville Centre, 5½ miles

Rockville Centre to Freeport, 4 miles

Freeport to Hicksville Rd., Massapequa, 6 miles

Massapequa to Islip, 15 miles

Vandewater Smith, himself a director of the road and a contractor,
was to furnish a third of the ties; Willett Charlick furnished a second
third, and Martin Willets of Islip the remainder. Ties had to be 8 feet
long, 4½ to 5 inches thick, and 6 inches wide dressed; any wood at all
was acceptable. The railroad itself was to furnish the rolling stock.

On Monday, May 28, 1866 the dirt began to fly. A small work force
began labor in Jamaica, while a second force was sent to work at
Freeport and began grading westward.

In September 1866 at a meeting of the directors it was voted to
extend the road from the present contracted terminus at Islip eleven
miles eastward to Patchogue. This extension would not be laid, however,
till 1867 or 1868; there was also talk of running a steamer from
Patchogue to touch all the Great South Bay villages to the east.

During September 1866 additional gangs of workmen were set to work at
the Hicksville Road (present Route 107) between the present stations of
Seaford and Massapequa and work was pushed two miles to the east and
west. Another gang was engaged near Amityville, grading through the
swamp north of Ireland's Mill Pond (still existing) and a third graded
through the swamp near Carman's Mill Pond (Massapequa Lake).

By the onset of winter weather in late November 1866, the grading of
the road bed was largely finished between Jamaica and Islip. It was
planned to lay ties and rails in the coming spring. The spectacle of
actual physical work on the new railroad spurred the sale of the road's
remaining securities, and in December Mr. Willett Charlick made the
rounds of the bondholders for the first installment of 33 and 1/3%.

The enforced rest for the winter months was put to good use by the
officials of the road in negotiating for a western outlet for the
railroad. At first the directors approached the Brooklyn Central &
Jamaica RR operating the line between Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn, and
Jamaica, but Oliver Charlick, the astute and Machiavellian president of
the Long Island RR, managed to secure an indirect lease on the line for
himself in November 1866, and so shut out the South Side R.R. from
downtown Brooklyn. This left the road with the alternative of building
its own line westward from Jamaica to a terminal in Long Island City or
to Williamsburgh. After much deliberation it was decided to do both if
possible. Overtures were made to the Brooklyn authorities to enter the
Bushwick area via Metropolitan Ave., and to the New York & Flushing
RR to lease that portion of their track along Newtown Creek between
Maspeth and Long Island City. Since either terminus involved building at
least as far west as Maspeth, another contract was let to grade a route
through Richmond Hill, Glendale and Fresh Ponds, to be completed by July
1. Work began April 8, 1867. During May Messrs. Shanahan & Shields,
the contractors, were busy grading between Maspeth and Glendale.

Meanwhile the more important task of working on the main line was
resumed in April. Gangs of men with ties and rails were dispatched to
South Jamaica and Springfield. Another gang began work on the eastern
end of the road in May. In June enough rail had been laid at the Jamaica
end to run an engine and work cars. Old Beaver Pond between Beaver
Street and Liberty Avenue in Jamaica presented something of an obstacle
to the railroad because of the swampy marshland on its edges; to
overcome this the track was laid on driven piles, and the construction
cars dumped load after load of dirt into the pond to make a sound
roadbed and provide room for a station area and sidings. Orders were
placed for three locomotives and the first passenger cars.

Over toward Newtown Creek in Maspeth work was also progressing. The
railroad successfully negotiated the purchase of thirty-five acres of
meadow land belonging to Calvary Cemetery between Jack's and Dutch Kills
creeks with a valuable frontage along Newtown Creek on which to
establish a freight and manure depot.

In Fresh Ponds the South Side laborers staged a local riot on pay day
June 18, by getting drunk, shouting, insulting passers-by, and
eventually forcing their way into houses where they belabored the owners
and stole their valuables.

During July 1867 the work of track laying progressed at the average
rate of half a mile per day; track laying was going on simultaneously
from Fresh Ponds to Jamaica and from Jamaica to about Valley Stream.
Another track laying gang was moving west from Babylon. By the third
week of August the rails reached Pearsall's (Lynbrook) and then a halt
developed because of some difficulty between the officers of the road
and Contractor Shanahan.

The work was further handicapped at this moment because of a severe
injury to President Fox. He had attempted to board a Long Island train
hurriedly at Mineola on the morning of August 5, 1867, moments before it
had come to a final stop. In so doing, his foot slipped and he fell
between the car and the station platform, the motion of the cars rolling
him over and over in a space of seven or eight inches, causing severe
internal injuries and breaking an arm. Doctors were summoned immediately
who saved his life. A long period of recuperation became necessary and
the active management of the road devolved upon one of the directors,
Mr. A. J. Bergen of Islip.

During the first week of September the railhead reached Rockville
Centre. The engine Charles Fox headed the construction work at
this time and the south siders felt elated at the spectacle of this new
iron horse puffing along, backing and returning; thirty to forty men
were at work moving the railhead eastward.

By September 10 two engines were running construction trains, and two
new passenger cars had been delivered at Hunter's Point; ten miles of
track remained to be laid. At a meeting of the directors Mr. Ezra W.
Conklin received the post of Chief Engineer replacing Samuel McElroy. On
Monday September 23 the completed railhead reached the village of
Freeport and the citizens went out of their way to welcome the
construction train. All the residences were lighted up and a large
number of people gathered at the railroad crossing at Main Street. Here
sat the Charles Fox steaming away under an imposing arch bearing
the inscription "Welcome to the Charles Fox," and on either
side of the arch was suspended the Stars and Stripes. At the rear were
the flat cars which served as platforms for the speakers and the brass
band. Transparencies hung here and there adding a light and gay touch to
the street. Decorations of evergreens and floral designs hung from poles
all about and fireworks lit up the evening sky. Suitable short speeches
were made and cheered to the echo, after which refreshments were served.

Five miles of rails remained to be laid. On October 11, 1867 the
rails reached Babylon, and on the following day the Charles Fox
with a passenger car attached containing the directors, passed over the
road and were the recipeints of numerous ovations at the different
stations along the route. A brass band turned up at the Mineola Hotel
where President Fox lay, recovering from his injuries, and serenaded him
and he responded by inviting them all in for supper.

On Monday, October 28, 1867 the great day arrived, and trains began
running regularly for the first time. The first trains enjoyed heavy
patronage and met enthusiastic receptions all along the line. The very
first schedule provided for two trains a day each way, one in the
morning and one in the afternoon. The running time was one hour and
fifteen minutes and the stations and fares were as follows:

Jamaica to

Springfield

15¢

Merrick

45¢

Pearsall's

25¢

Ridgewood (Wantagh)

55¢

Rockville Centre

30¢

South Oyster Bay (Massapequa)

60¢

Baldwinsville

35¢

Amityville

65¢

Freeport

40¢

Babylon

85¢

The opening of the new road was acclaimed in all the Long Island
newspapers and many persons turned out to see the new first-class
locomotives and elegant passenger cars. A month before (September) the
directors had succeeded in inducing Robert White, superintendent of the
LIRR, to take over the same post on the South Side R.R. He was one of
the most experienced railroad men available and brought to the road the
energetic and competent management it needed.

On November 14, 1867 the South Side R.R. staged a formal grand
opening of the completed road between Jamaica and Babylon. A five-car
train was drawn up at the station and filled with the mayor, the whole
Common Council, and prominent people of Brooklyn, plus the officers and
directors of the South Side R.R. Other cars contained the prominent
officials of Jamaica and Queens County, some Assemblymen from Albany and
gentlemen of the press. The weather providentially turned out sunny and
clear. After an hour's ride the train reached Babylon and the party was
escorted to the American Hotel where "an elegant and sumptuous
repast" was served. Speeches were made by the more prominent guests
and the health of the absent President Fox was toasted. Later the guests
sauntered about the streets of Babylon and then "took the
cars" for Brooklyn.

Among the lyrical predictions of great things to come from the
opening up of rich farmlands and thriving villages, many interesting
facts emerged. The road cost $20,000 a mile including equipment; the
company's capital was $1,250,000, of which $700,000 had already been
expended. Popular enthusiasm along the line had resulted in the donation
of several depot buildings. At Ridgewood (Wantagh) the depot had gone up
by private subscription and the same thing was being done at Babylon. In
addition much of the right of way had been donated outright by the
farmers.

CHAPTER II: The South Side Rail Road Reaches
the East River

While the company was completing its main line to Babylon, important
events were happening on the west end of the line during the spring and
summer of 1867. When the railhead approached the headwaters of Newtown
Creek, it became necessary to make a decision: should the road seek its
river-front terminal by going along the north bank of the creek into
Long Island City, or should it follow the south bank into the
Williamsburgh section of Brooklyn? Since the Long Island RR and the
Flushing RR already had their termini in Long Island City, the company
favored Brooklyn for its depot.

As early as the fall of 1866 long before the road turned a shovelful
of earth, some of its promoters induced some of the prominent residents
of Williamsburgh to support them in a petition addressed to the Common
Council of Brooklyn to enter the city along the line of Metropolitan
Avenue and North Third Street down to the ferry, and with a main depot
at Union Avenue. The residents of the then very new village of
Greenpoint signified that they were more than willing to let the
railroad come through their area, should Brooklyn prove inhospitable.

Williamsburgh at the end of the Civil War had grown into a large
city; between 1850 and 1855 it had been an independent city and had then
merged into Brooklyn as the Eastern District. The Common Council was
understandably hesitant about permitting a steam railroad to lay its
tracks through a densely settled area where there was menace to life and
limb. The Council wisely decided to open the question to public
discussion and advertised public hearings in the press. The editors of
the local papers seized upon the topic as one of paramount importance to
the community, and threw open their columns to the widest public
discussion.

Thanks to the long series of articles contributed by every shade of
opinion, we can appreciate today the feelings pro and con about steam in
the streets. In the Williamsburgh of the 1860's Bushwick Avenue, a
north-south street, marked the limit of settlement. East of Bushwick
Avenue stretched a very large area of swamp and meadowland forming the
headwaters of Newtown Creek. No houses dotted this primeval greensward.
Farmers pastured their cows in its fields and cut hay for winter fodder.
Two roads only cut through the meadows: Maspeth Avenue and Metropolitan
Avenue.

On the edge of the meadows and near the junction of the above avenues
stood the old-time glue factory of Peter Cooper, one of the merchant
princes of his day and the founder of Cooper Union. He owned nearly all
the land in the area, while the Thursby family of ropewalk fame and the
Kalbfleisch family (mayor of Brooklyn) owned the rest. The Coopers
vigorously opposed the incursion of the South Side RR and led the
opposition against the road. Cooper alleged that 100% of the people were
opposed to the railroad and in rebuttal angry letters appeared in the Times
attacking Cooper for self-interest and inaccuracy. The controversy raged
unabated during May, June and July 1867 and finally came to a head in
November and December.

Briefly, opponents of the South Side RR made these telling points
against a line on Metropolitan Avenue to the ferry:

Travelers from Long Island would simply pass through Williamsburgh
and not spend any money in the District.

The District contained twelve churches and three large public
schools, the pupils of whom were threatened with maiming and death
at the hands of the railroad.

Steam cars would inevitably depress the value of building lots
just coming onto the market.

Steam would blight the residential area between the ferry and
Bushwick Avenue, as had happened on Park Avenue and Eleventh Avenue
in New York.

The speed of steam cars will be greater than that of horse cars
and so be a greater menace to pedestrians.

A depot on the East River would crowd existing factories, and the
trans-shipment of manure would make the area intolerable to
residents.

Metropolitan Avenue was narrow, twenty-four feet in some places
and sixty feet at most anywhere, leaving no room for vehicular
traffic.

Metropolitan Avenue varied widely in grade; a steep rise from the
ferry to Bedford Avenue, a deep dip near Union Avenue, etc. The
grade varied eight feet over all and because nineteen streets
intersected it, cutting it down to a level for steam engines would
be unthinkable.

Proponents of the South Side Rail Road urged these points in answer:

Peter Cooper's opposition stems from his unwillingness to move his
pestilential glue factory.

A large produce market would be set up at the South Side terminus
as an outlet for the Long Island farmers, providing fresh produce
for all and employment for many.

The railroad will not depress, but will rather increase the value
of property along the street.

Streets with railroads hum with life but wither away with the
driving out of steam traffic; see what Atlantic Avenue was before
1861 and what it is now.

Opposition to the South Side RR is being secretly abetted by
President Oliver Charlick of the LIRR who fears competition, and the
owners of the Long Island City ferries who fear loss of patronage.

Quick, cheap transit to the suburbs is one of Brooklyn's crying
needs.

Access to Long Island summer resorts and beaches will be a boon to
every Brooklyn family.

Progress cannot be stopped by a Japanese policy of a closed door.

The distance the railroad would go through crowded city streets is
only a half mile to a Union Avenue depot or a mile to the ferry.

As the argument raged in the hearings and in the press, the local
newspaper carne out strongly in favor of the South Side road. The Brooklyn
Times and the Brooklyn Union championed the railroad, and the
Eagle favored the idea. There were not wanting voices of
compromise. Some suggested running the road to the Wallabout Basin (now
the Navy Yard) along the lowlands marking the division between old
Brooklyn and Williamsburgh, approximately along the line of Flushing
Avenue, then sparsely settled. Another school of thinking viewed
favorably a private right-of-way running midway between Maspeth and
Metropolitan Avenues as far as Bushwick Avenue. Still others liked the
idea of a line along Newtown Creek down to the East River by-passing
Williamsburgh altogether.

In the first week of July 1867 the hot dispute came to a vote in the
Common Council and the railroad was refused entry into Brooklyn along
the line of Metropolitan Avenue with steam cars. In September the South
Side RR again petitioned the Common Council to enter Brooklyn, this time
along the line of Dickinson Avenue, then north up Vandervoort Avenue to
Orient, and west along Orient Avenue to the jnuction of Metropolitan and
Bushwick Avenues. This route was poor, involving two sharp turns, yet
opposition again developed despite the absence of houses along the
route.

As November 1867 wore on with no solution in sight, the Brooklyn
Times editorially suggested that the South Side might achieve a
river terminus cheaply and easily by going along the line of Bushwick
Creek (North Thirteenth Street and through McCarren Park), the very
route later to be chosen for the Manhattan Beach road, but intimated
that the railroad should be satisfied with a depot on Bushwick Avenue.

The South Side RR made one last try before accepting the advice of
the Times. On November 28, 1867 the road petitioned the Common
Conucil to enter Brooklyn along the line of Montrose Avenue and to build
a depot at Union Avenue. The advantages were that Montrose Avenue was
eighty feet wide in Williamsburgh and that east of Bushwick Avenue, it
existed only on paper, traversing a swamp and meadow with not a single
house. From Bushwick to Union Avenue was densely populated, to be sure,
but this stretch was only five blocks long.

No one at all objected to the meadowland route to the east, but for
the five block stretch to Union Avenue there was strong opposition
because of the dense population all about; all the old arguments against
steam were trotted out and restated. Some one proposed a tunnel but the
railroad engineers pointed out that the ground level was only seven to
ten feet above high water and that the railroad was unable to expend the
estimated cost of almost a million dollars.

As the year 1867 came to a close with the matter still deadlocked,
the railroad accepted what had long been apparent: a terminus on the
edge of the city (Bushwick Avenue) and the use of horses to pull the
cars the rest of the distance to the ferry. As soon as the railroad made
known its willingness to accept this compromise, the Common Council on
December 16 gratefully ended the long dispute by granting a depot on
Bushwick Avenue at Montrose Avenue and a single-track horse-operated
road to the ferry at the foot of South Seventh Street.

When it became evident to the South Side RR that an outlet to the
East River was certain, negotiations were begun to acquire a site on the
waterfront for a depot. The company first negotiated for the Tuttle Coal
Yard at Wythe and South Seventh but the price of $33,000 for 3 lots
struck the directors as too high. The ferry stand at the foot of South
Eighth Street, and a lot at South Eighth and Kent either cost too much
or else provided insufficient space. After much searching about, the
railroad finally managed to buy a plot of ground directly on the water
between Broadway (old South Seventh Street) and South Eighth Street. The
site had formerly been a coal yard and the railroad simply took over the
existing office building as a freight depot. The property consisted of
eight city lots, with a frontage on Kent Avenue of sixty-eight feet and
a depth of 156 feet. Since the property directly adjoined the Broadway
Ferry, it provided ideal accommodations for passengers.

With the depot problem solved at last, the South Side RR lost no time
in building its track from Jamaica to the Broadway Ferry. As of December
1867 the track was completed from Jamaica to 118th Street., Richmond
Hill, and the iron and ties were distributed along the line as far as
Fresh Pond Road only three miles from the South Seventh Street ferry.
The hard frosts and winter weather made track laying unsuitable, so the
company used to good advantage the months of February and March in
securing a route between Bushwick terminus and South Seventh Street
ferry. On February 20, 1868 a petition was presented by the owners of
property on Broadway to permit the railroad to run horse cars on
Broadway. On March 2 the Common Council granted this request, giving the
South Side a line along Montrose Avenue from Bushwick Avenue to Union
Avenue, down Union Avenue a block to Broadway, and thence along Broadway
to the ferry. The only conditions set were that the company should pave
the rails with stone, operate only steam coaches, not park cars in the
public street, and transport no manure.

While this arrangement seemed to please everybody at first sight,
there was one hidden flaw. The Broadway R.R. Co., a street car company,
was already operating a line of horse cars along Montrose Avenue to
Bushwick Avenue. Rather than lay a second track beside that of the
Broadway Company, or enter upon long and involved negotiations with
them, President Fox of the South Side petitioned the Common Council to
substitute Boerum Street instead, two blocks to the south. This time,
miraculously, the permission was forthcoming immediately without long
and dreary litigation.

With the entire route to Brooklyn cleared at last, the contractors
building the road pushed their work. Just at this juncture, President
Oliver Charlick of the LIRR shrewdly introduced another obstacle. As
lessee of the Brooklyn Central & Jamaica RR since 1866, Charlick
secured an injunction from the courts to prevent the South Side RR from
crossing his road at Dunton west of Jamaica. It was but a delaying
maneuver at best and within a month's time, the injunction was dissolved
and construction continued onward.

By February 15, 1868 the gang had completed the track to Fresh Ponds
and it was debated whether to open service immediately or wait to reach
Brooklyn. On the nineteenth, as a party of workmen were excavating in a
cut west of Fresh Pond Road, the bank suddenly caved in burying three
men; thanks to prompt rescue work, all three were dug out uninjured.
During April another gang was hard at work driving piles along the route
through the meadows adjoining Newtown Creek. All during the fair spring
weather the work was being pushed night and day and it was announced the
road would enter Brooklyn by June 25. The heavy cutting involved in
passing the ridge of hills near the Lutheran Cemetery proved the biggest
obstacle.

On Saturday, July 18, 1868 the great day arrived after months of
preparation; the first train passed over the South Side RR into Bushwick
station, carrying 600 passengers. As yet there was no real depot. The
railroad had taken over a farmhouse of Revolutionary vintage on the
property, once the homestead of the Schenck family, and used it as a
temporary waiting room and ticket office. The railroad had to rely on
the Bushwick Avenue and Montrose Avenue horse cars to transport its
passengers to the ferry, and there was lively competition for this
privilege between the Brooklyn City and Broadway Railroads.

The opening of the South Side line to Brooklyn was welcomed as one of
the greatest events in the history of Williamsburgh. The press saw it as
a final rectification of the blunder of driving steam service from
Atlantic Avenue seven years before. It was now possible to reach Jamaica
in twenty minutes less time, and more important, brought the whole of
the south side of Long Island into easy reach of Brooklyn. The new
equipment and high standard of roadbed was favorably contrasted with the
older Long Island RR, and looking far into the future, the press
envisioned the many new villages and handsome residences that would grow
up.

Even with the completion of the line into
Bushwick, all did not run
smoothly. In three days' time no less than four attempts were made to
wreck the train by placing obstacles on the track; then on July 24 a
torrential rain covered the track of the road with sand and water near
Fresh Ponds and prevented service for half a day.

Laying of the rails into the ferry building was beset with
difficulties. A sewer was being constructed along lower Broadway and the
road was forced to wait till the work was done; in addition a horse car
company operating on Union Avenue had been granted a terminus at South
Eighth Street, and, as laid out, the railroad tracks and horse car rails
would cross one another six times near Kent Avenue. To get out of this
difficulty the South Side RR again appeared before the Common Council to
exchange a portion of the two company's respective routes.

The permission to exchange track locations was easily forthcoming,
but the Aldermen tacked on as a rider a prohibition against the use of T
rail on Broadway, a right granted to the road in the earlier statute
passed by the Council. Since part of the route was already laid with T
rail, this eleventh-hour denial posed a new problem.

In the last days of September the tracks were laid through Boerum
Street, and at the same time a large and commodious depot was going up
at South Eighth Street. By the first week of November 1868, the work was
almost completed; on November 4, Wednesday, the first train made the
maiden trip through Brooklyn streets to the ferry terminus, eliminating
at last the delay and inconvenience of changing cars at Bushwick. The
South Side RR had at last reached the East River.

The South Side was not wholly satisfied with the new arrangement.
Because the cars were drawn through Boerum Street and Broadway by
horses, a train had to be broken up into individual cars, and a
six-horse or eight-horse team attached to draw each coach to the ferry.
In the railroad's view this process was cumbersome and increased the
chances of accident. Using a steam dummy seemed the best solution.

Nothing quite like the old-fashioned steam dummy exists today;
perhaps the closest modern analogy is the little diesel switcher popular
in rail yards and freight terminals. In size the steam dummy resembled a
small horse car of the period. It was very short with the conventional
five or six windows and inside was a vertical steam boiler with a
smokestack extending out through the roof. It had but four wheels driven
directly by a piston and connecting rod from a small cylinder located
near the front wheel. Because the engine ~was small and not very
powerful, its smoke and cinder exhaust was small and hardly
objectionable. Its chief advantage for the South Side RR was that it
could haul a whole train of the frail wooden coaches of that period
without the necessity of breaking up the train.

The use of steam through city streets necessitated another campaign
of persuasion not only in the Brooklyn Common Council, but also in the
State Legislature. Early in November 1868 the company applied to the
Council for permission to experiment with a new dummy engine, to see
whether the current models could draw cars on the grade along the eight
blocks of South Eighth Street. The Brooklyn Times again took up
the company's cause in its columns and urged the reasonableness of the
idea.

A public hearing was called on December 3 and after much discussion,
the use of a dummy was voted down. The chief objections were that steam
engines were a threat to the safety of children, that they depreciated
property, and created smoke. Most persons had no clear conception of the
difference between a steam engine and a dummy, although company
representatives stressed that the dummy's speed was only four to eight
miles per hour and that seven to eight cars could be drawn at one time,
and stopped within the dummy's own length.

When the Common Council met to consider the question, no remonstrance
had been received from the property owners. The council members advised
the road that if the company would substitute the groove rail for the
present T rail, the matter might receive more favorable attention.
Complaints had been received about wagons breaking axles. The railroad's
representatives replied that an order had already been given to a Jersey
factory for the grooved rails, but the order had not yet been filled.
The Aldermen seemed dissatisfied at this and voted to leave the matter
in abeyance till the rails were changed. On December 28 the matter was
again brought up and permission at last given. The grant expressly
stated that experimental trips only might be attempted on three days in
January 1869, and as a further precaution, insisted that the engine be
preceded by a horse with rider carrying a red flag; that bond against
damages be executed, and that the T rail be eliminated at the earliest
possible moment.

The South Side RR was not the first to try out steam dummies as a
substitute for horse power. It had been tried intermittently on certain
New York street car lines in 1864 (Second Avenue and Bleecker Street),
in Philadelphia later, and in 1868 on Atlantic Avenue by the Atlantic
Ave. RR Co. The New York & Hudson River RR was also using one on
Eleventh Avenue in New York which the Brooklyn Aldermen themselves
visited in January 1869. As a result of this visit the officials were
very favorably impressed and renewed the South Side Rail Road's
permission to test their engine in February, nothing having been done in
January. In a burst of generosity they even withdrew the requirement to
employ a horse and a red flag.

As soon as the permission was forthcoming, the South Side officials
scouted around everywhere for a suitable dummy engine and found none for
sale. As the weeks drifted by, it became necessary to place an order for
an improved dummy with a firm in Jersey, and to petition the Common
Council for an extension of time. With an eye to the future, the company
also introduced a petition to the Assembly in Albany on March 11,
praying for permission to use the dummy permanently in the streets of
Brooklyn. On April 20 the bill was passed by the Assembly and referred
to the Senate. Oliver Charlick of the Long Island~ RR and men of
influence on the Long Island's Board of Directors were busy using every
political connection they enjoyed to defeat the measure.

From a newspaper attack on the South Side RR in April led by a
citizen of Williamsburgh, we learn that the company had failed to remove
the T rail although it had promised to do so as soon as the frost was
out of the ground. It was true that the new flat rails were stacked all
along the curb in Boerum Street and Broadway, but no effort had been
made to lay them. The writer bitterly denounced the double nuisance of T
rail in the road and the obstruction to the sidewalk of the grooved
rails; he pronounced the condition of lower Broadway so wretched between
South Eighth and Boerum Streets that for eight or ten blocks the avenue
was virtually closed to light carriages. The editor's comment did not
disagree with these facts and expressed the hope that the South Side
people would be stirred to action.

The letter must have been effective for during the first week of May
the company removed a part of the T rails from Broadway and were
installing the grooved rail to the pleasure and satisfaction of carriage
drivers. The work proceeded at an irritatingly slow pace all during May
and June and the discarded T rails lay in piles in the roadway,
narrowing Broadway for wagon traffic.

Apparently the Senate Railroad Committee reported favorably on the
dummy bill despite Charlick's machinations, for the company made ready
all during June and July for the new dummy service. On Saturday July 31,
1869 a dummy made a trial trip at four P.M. along Boerum Street for the
first time. It came down with four passenger cars and four freight cars.
The trip took about ten minutes and closely observing the operation were
President Fox and Superintendent White in one of the passenger cars. On
Monday morning, August 2 the dummy began regular service hauling full
trains back and forth. After a week of operation no accidents had
occurred and no complaints lodged, moving the newspapers to comment on
how groundless and old-maidish had been the fears of alarmists.

CHAPTER III: The Era of Expansion: Patchogue,
Rockaway And Hunter's Point

South Side
Railroad Public Time Table Effective: 01/1869 with Sayville as the terminus until 04/1869 when service began to Patchogue.
Valley Stream was not yet a station. Archive: Art Huneke

South Side Railroad Public Time Table 05/30/1870
Islip Centre is no longer listed and Valley Stream and The Far Rockaway Branch Railroad listed.
Archive: Art Huneke

With the all-important deep-water terminus in Brooklyn secured, the
South Side RR next bent all its efforts to completing the east end of
the line. Originally, the company had planned to build only as far as
Islip, but it quickly became evident that the much larger village of
Patchogue would make a better terminus. Long before the first train
opened regular service to Babylon on October 28, 1867, the inhabitants
of the south shore villages were actively discussing just how far
eastward the railroad should be extended. While the directors of the
road were perfectly receptive to the idea of building farther afield,
Patchogue seemed an immediate and practical goal.

The contract for grading the roadbed east of Babylon seems to have
been given out as early as January 1868. By the last week of March the
engineers' surveys were completed, and grading was planned as soon as
the ground thawed sufficiently. On April 2, 1868 track-laying between
Babylon and Patchogue was commenced, and on April 30 was completed as
far east as Islip. It was tentatively planned to open service to Islip
on May 1; workmen meanwhile hastily pushed on toward Patchogue. By
August the grading had been completed to Sayville and grading between
here and Patchogue was begun. In the first week of September workmen
began laying the rails eastward from Islip and on Saturday, September 5,
trains were run into the village of Islip for the first time.

Grading meanwhile had been pushed to within a mile of Patchogue. By
September 10 the grading gang had passed Sayville. As a temporary
measure arrangements were made with the proprietor of the stagecoach
running along the Montauk Highway to carry passengers from Patchogue to
the end of track. On September 7, Labor Day, no less than eighty
passengers were so conveyed, something of a record for so small a
vehicle on one day and almost a century ago. By September 21 the grading
had approached to within a mile and a half of Patchogue. As autumn
passed on into late October, the railroad came close to Sayville and the
grading work into Patchogue reached completion; Superintendent White
announced to the newspapers that service would begin to Sayville
"in a fortnight."

In the first week of December Jack Frost put an end to all grading
operations for the winter, but on or about December 11 Superintendent
White did inaugurate the service to Sayville station as planned. So
pleased were the residents of the town at having the trains before
winter closed in that on Sunday the thirteenth, a large group of
townsmen joined fifty of the railroad's employees in erecting and
completing an engine house all in one day. Work necessarily came to a
halt during the coldest winter months, but in March the railroad resumed
work on the road, and pushed it as fast as the ground would allow.
Finally, on or about April 10, 1869 the line was completed to Patchogue.
One would suppose that the completion of the main line would have
occasioned some sort of celebration, but the event must have been a
quiet and casual affair, for it passed unchronicled in any of the
newspapers of the island.

The mere presence of the South Side RR was a stimulus to all the
villages along the south shore from the very day that the road had been
organized. In an age when railroad facilities were a prestige symbol for
a town and meant the difference between isolation and partnership with
progress, forward looking townsmen and merchants in every village took
it upon themselves to initiate promotion campaigns and to offer tempting
inducements to railroad boards of directors to extend to their locality.

As early as January 1867, long before the first tie had been laid,
the citizens of Moriches held a meeting and voted to grant the
right-of-way through their land to the company. Not to be outdone in
generosity, the landowners near Sag Harbor offered the same inducement
in March. To smooth the advance of the railroad legally, committees
arranged for the presentation to the Legislature of bills authorizing
extension of the road through the Towns of Brookhaven and Southampton,
and offered to market railroad bonds to the amount of eight and ten
thousand dollars per mile of road built.

During the winter months of 1867-8 rallies were held in the principal
villages to whip up railroad enthusiasm and in April the three townships
of Brookhaven, Southampton and Easthampton came through handsomely with
generous offers of money and land. Brookhaven offered $68,000 and the
right of way, Southampton $112,000 and the right of way, and Easthampton
$25,000, a grand total of $205,000 toward the completion of about
forty-five miles of road eastward from Patchogue to Sag Harbor. This
generous offer was presented to the directors of the South Side RR at
their meeting on April 6, 1868 and unanimously accepted.

With the coming of spring in 1869, it was reliably reported that the
directors were about to build along the proffered right of way from
Patchogue through Bellport, Brookhaven, and Moriches to Riverhead, the
county seat. The inhabitants of Riverhead declared themselves ready to
vote $25,000 or more to encourage the enterprise.

Whatever the reason, nothing so grandiose as a Riverhead extension
took place over the summer, but in the fall of 1869 commissioners were
appointed to appraise the damages to property for a four-mile extension
from Patchogue to the neighboring village of Bellport, in the hope that
construction could begin in the spring of 1870. The people of Moriches,
at a public meeting, also took the occasion to appoint a committee to
wait upon President Fox of the South Side RR to persuade him to build as
far as Eastport, the easterly limit of the Town of Brookhaven. President
Fox replied that the request would be favorably considered, provided the
residents along the proposed extension would subscribe for $140,000 of
the first mortgage bonds of the railroad. At a meeting of the directors
on the twenty-second it was voted to make a survey of the road.

In January it was reported that the $140,000 of stock had all been
taken by the residents of the various villages, and that the engineering
survey was being pushed. Then, oddly enough, all talk of eastward
extensions ceased, and we hear of no further attempts either on the part
of the villages or the railroad to move eastward. It is difficult to see
after the lapse of a century just why this was so. We can only surmise
that the tempting offers of stock and land were not as readily
forthcoming as the railroad was led to expect, or, more likely, that the
Long Island Rail Road's hasty extension to Sag Harbor just a few months
later on June 8, 1870 siphoned off what little traffic originated on the
east end.

The directors of the South Side RR were too astute and forward
looking however, to waste the season of 1869 in idleness. From the very
earliest days of the incorporation of the road, they had cast an
appraising eye on the traffic possibilities of the Rockaways, as yet
untapped by the Long Island RR. Before the Civil War, surf bathing and
beach visiting were virtually unknown; it is difficult to imagine in our
day when sun bathing and swimming have become a national cult and part
of the mores of American society, that great beaches like Coney Island
and Rockaway, only a few miles from the metropolis, were deserted and
barren sand dunes.

In 1816 the Pavilion, the first seaside resort hotel in Rockaway
opened its doors. During the 1830's visiting the Pavilion became
fashionable, but not for the bathing facilities available. Persons of
wealth boarded at the shore, ate quantities of "Rockaways,"
the most esteemed clams of that day, and attended cotillions and
concerts in the evening. Life had a leisurely and aristocratic flavor,
and none but the wealthy could afford the long, costly trip to the
beach.

When the Pavilion burned down in 1863, it marked the end of an era.
Hitherto, to get to Far Rockaway, one took the train to Jamaica, and
then hired a stage coach to traverse the swampy stretches of the Jamaica
& Rockaway Turnpike Co. (Rockaway Boulevard) to the shore. In
October 1865 this primitive mode of travel was rendered obsolete by the
opening of the Brooklyn and Rockaway Beach RR from East New York due
south to Canarsie, where the traveler boarded one of the railroad's
launches to anyone of three landings, presently corresponding to Beach
111th Street, Beach 103rd Street and Beach 92nd Street.

The effect of the Canarsie route was to attract traffic to the
present Hammel's, Seaside and Rockaway Beach and away from Far Rockaway.
A further injury occurred in 1866 when the spring tides caused a long
sand bar to form opposite the old Far Rockaway Beach about half a mile
out in the water. The bar gradually grew and cut off the breakers,
ruining surf bathing. In April 1870 the same spring tides in the course
of one evening swept over the island and washed it away to the great joy
of the inhabitants, who prayed for a return of the old days when Far
Rockaway was known as one of the best surf bathing beaches in the
country.

The vast increase in population in Brooklyn and Williamsburgh during
the 1860'S because of the record immigration of Irish and Germans is
another factor that must be considered in explaining the sudden
popularity of the beaches in the late Sixties and early Seventies. These
city dwellers lived closely together, raised large families, and worked
six days a week; it was inevitable that cheap recreation would attract
an overwhelming patronage.

With this potential bonanza in mind, the directors of the South Side
RR resolved in 1868 to be the first to build a direct, overland route to
the Rockaways. Because the charter of the South Side RR did not
expressly permit the construction of a branch to the Rockaways, the
directors had to incorporate a subsidiary called the "Far Rockaway
Branch Rail Road Co. of Queens County." with Vandewater Smith, one
of the directors, as its president.

On March 24, 1869 three hundred men were put to work at a point then
known as Wood's Corner, near the Brush Farm, later Franklin Ave., Valley
Stream. At almost the same time Electus B. Litchfield, the wealthy
railroad magnate of Brooklyn and Babylon, purchased the whole J. N.
Brush farm of eighty-five acres in all, for about $20,000 and laid out
what became the village of Valley Stream. In the early days of April the
work on the new branch accelerated; at the time 160 laborers had graded
two miles of road, and on April 10 began laying the ties and rails. By
the first of May the whole road had been graded.

Some of the right of way must have been secured by the issuance of
lifetime passes to the property holders. We learn this indirectly from
an amusing incident that occurred in the fall of this year 1869. An old
man, a Mr. Norton, venerable with white hairs, took his seat in the
coach with his aged wife. Something evidently excited the old man, for
in an undertone he was laying down the law to his companion accompanied
with violent gestures. When the conductor arrived, his excitement seemed
to culminate. On inquiry it developed that for certain considerations
President Vandewater Smith had bargained to allow Mr. Norton and his
wife a free pass over the Rockaway and South Side Railroads during their
natural lives. The trouble of the old man was that his pass was only
dated for one year and had to be renewed each year, whereas he wished it
to be perpetual without the burden of renewing it annually.

Just when the progress of the road was all that could be desired, a
hitch developed in relation to some real estate. A Mr. William B.
McManus who owned a farm located between Rockaway Turnpike and
Washington Avenue, Lawrence, and which would be cut in two by the
railroad right of way, refused to accept the railroad's valuation on his
property, and successfully petitioned for an injunction on May 30, 1869.

This was a severe blow to the railroad's hopes for they were bending
every effort to open the line in time for the summer patronage; in
desperation they formulated an emergency plan to run trains as far as
the McManus property, and convey passengers the rest of the way by
stagecoach. By a legal quirk this proved unnecessary; McManus'
injunction against the South Side RR expired at 11 A.M. on June 24, and
before McManus had time to have it renewed, a force of about seventy men
laid the ties and rails over the 7oo-foot distance within three hours
and a construction train ran over it. The railroad hoped to surface up
and level the track and roadbed over the weekend of June 26-27 and then
begin service.

McManus had probably not realized that the railroad was capable of
such sharp dealing, but neither did the railroad realize the sort of man
they were dealing with. The following night McManus rounded up a group
of fellow Irishmen and not only tore up the 700 feet of track, but did
it so thoroughly that every rail was ruined in the process of removal.

The railroad was jolted by this unusual show of spirit and began
proceedings to discover the culprits. The following weekend McManus was
arrested on a complaint of Vandewater Smith, president of the Far
Rockaway Branch RR, on charges of malicious and willful destruction.
McManus was discharged on a legal objection that the complaint did not
state facts sufficient to bring the defendant within the provisions of
the statute. President Smith objected to dismissing the suit and a new
hearing was scheduled.

Meanwhile McManus' counsel threatened that he would sell or otherwise
dispose of the track and crossties if not removed from the premises, and
this so alarmed the railroad that they secured an injunction from the
Supreme Court forbidding any tampering with their property until final
adjudication.

At the next court hearing three commissioners were appointed to
assess the McManus property and to make an award. On July 23, 1869 the
commissioners inspected the land and after conferring, confirmed an
award of $425 to McManus. Predictably, that gentleman flew into a rage
and planned to appeal from the decision. Meanwhile, the railroad relaid
its ravaged roadbed on July 28.

On Thursday, July 29, 1869 the branch road to Far Rockaway was opened
to the public. The importance of the new route could hardly be
overestimated. For the first time Rockaway was brought into direct
communication with Brooklyn, and it became possible for the average man
to visit the beach for the day after traveling for only forty minutes.
The total investment for the company came to about $75,000, but it was
hoped that the returns would be many times that sum.

Far Rockaway
Archive: Art Huneke

The South Side RR terminal depot and roundhouse in Far Rockaway
occupied the present site of the Long Island RR's depot facing Mott
Avenue. Because the South Side terminal was at the north end of the
village of Far Rockaway, passengers still had the long distance of a
mile to walk to the bathing beach and had to compete for space with the
boarders of the many hotels in the village. West of the present Beach
Twentieth Street there were no houses or hotels, and the beach and sand
dunes stretched for miles; it occurred to the railroad directors that
simply by constructing a sweeping curve along the north and west of the
village, they could have a terminus right at the water's edge with a
beach of their own.

With this object in mind the road initiated fresh construction in
July 1869. By the end of August the required one mile of track was
completed to the dune headlands between Edgemere and Wave Crest and
terminating at a point which today is approximately Beach Thirtieth
Street and the Boardwalk. On September 1 the new spur was completed and
excursion tickets were put on sale for September 2, entitling the
purchaser to a round trip ride, a free lunch and participation in a
clambake, in honor of the inauguration of the new line.

On Thursday, September 2, 1869 the new road was opened as planned.
President Charles Fox of the South Side RR and Vandewater Smith of the
Far Rockaway Branch road, along with many directors and their families,
came down to the beach and filled the large tents surrounding the clam
pits. Lunch was served to about 200 guests of the railroad present and
short speeches were made by the two presidents to mark the occasion,
followed by an inspection of the neighborhood. During the following
spring of the 1870 season the railroad erected a large restaurant or
pavilion 125 x 200 feet on the beach facing the ocean for the
convenience of its patrons. Connected with it was a kitchen and rooms
for the keeper and his family. On timetables this structure was first
referred to simply as "Beach," later "Beach House,"
and after 1872 as "South Side Pavilion."

By the summer of 1870 the South Side Pavilion was in full operation.
There was a large "saloon" where individuals or parties could
buy a substantial meal at popular prices, or if they preferred, could
occupy guest tables at a rental of twenty-five cents. A string band was
provided by the railroad every afternoon for persons wishing to dance.
On the beach side there were bath houses, where the railroad rented out
bathing suits and extended facilities for checking valuables. A plank
walk led from the open depot tracks to the water's edge. So proud was
the railroad of its Beach House that it ran another private Rockaway
excursion for its board of directors on August 3, 1870.

In **1871 the railroad entrusted the management of the South Side
Pavilion to professional operators, Messrs. Hicks & Dibble. On June
5 the place was officially opened for the season and the railroad again
ran a private excursion consisting of three coaches and the locomotive
"J. B. Johnston" for the benefit of railroad executives,
politicians and guests, all of whom partook liberally of the clam roasts
and clam chowders for which the house was noted, and later regaled
themselves with the yachting and bluefishing facilities.

As the 1871 season wore on, the directors resolved on a new and still
more impressive improvement; this was to extend the tracks westward from
the South Side Pavilion all the way along the Rockaway peninsula as far
as the limit of habitation.

One motive behind this extension was to capture all the Rockaway
passenger traffic which up to then had been shared with the Brooklyn
& Rockaway Beach RR Co., operating from East New York to Canarsie.
While Far Rockaway was an old seaside resort of half a century's
standing, the peninsula itself had been slowly developing and was in
1870 the exclusive preserve of four or five hotels. In 1856 James S.
Remsen of Jamaica bought a considerable tract of land at Rockaway Beach
for $500. In this primitive wilderness he built a little barroom and
chowder house, which over the years gradually developed into the Seaside
House.

At first the house catered only to fisherfolk and boat parties, but
after the Brooklyn & Rockaway Beach RR opened in October 1865, a bay
landing was constructed at Remsen Avenue (Beach 103rd Street) and the
railroad's ferry boats disgorged Rockaway's first beach crowds visiting
just for the day, and intent on swimming, picnicking and gargantuan clam
and oyster-eating orgies. Remsen sold some of his land for enormous sums
and rented out the rest, including the Seaside House, which, by 1869,
was the largest establishment along the dunes. It was this seaside
resort that exerted a magnetic appeal on the directors of the South Side
RR, and it was towards this goal that fresh construction began in April
and May 1872.

There was a second and more immediate motive for building the beach
extension in 1872, the unpleasant fact that Oliver Charlick of the Long
Island RR was building his own Rockaway Branch from Rockaway Junction
(present Hillside station) southward to an undefined point. Unless the
South Side RR built immediately westward from their pavilion, their
rival Charlick would beat them to the punch. Work was rushed on the new
line, which was laid along the highest point of the beach ridge,
affording a fine view of the ocean.

On July 4, 1872 the new line opened through to the Seaside House
(Beach 103rd Street, Seaside Station). There were two intermediate
stations: Eldert's Grove (Beach Eighty-fourth Street, now Hammel's) and
Holland's (Beach Ninety-second Street, now Holland Station). Both of
these were resort hotels, the one run by Garry Eldert and the other by
Michael Holland. Two years later in May 1875 the directors extended the
branch one step further to the Neptune House (Beach 116th Street) which
became the permanent terminus.

With the extension to the Rockaways an assured success that would
grow with the years, the South Side RR resolved to go through with
another project which had been under discussion for some time, namely, a
branch to Hunter's Point. During the long negotiations with the City of
Brooklyn during 1867 and 1868 for an outlet to the East River, the
alternative of reaching the waterfront by a route along Newtown Creek to
Hunter's Point had frequently come up, and had been used as a potent
argument in case the city authorities should prove balky.

Even with the Brooklyn route secured, the railroad was not completely
satisfied. The biggest handicap was the difficulty in shuttling freight
cars back and forth from the ferry to Bushwick station along a single
track through streets crowded with wagons and horse cars, and with the
ever-present menace of children and venturesome boys. By building a
branch along the north side of Newtown Creek, the road could obtain a
deep water terminal without the handicaps of the Williamsburgh route,
but such a road would be expensive because of the right-of-way through
commercial properties, and because it would meet the certain opposition
of the Long Island RR and its politically formidable president, Oliver
Charlick.

Now it so happened that there was already such a railroad along the
creek from Maspeth to Hunter's Point built by the New York &
Flushing RR in 1854. If the South Side RR were to obtain control of this
road and build a short connecting spur, a road of its own would be
unnecessary. In May 1867 the newspapers reported that the South Side and
Flushing railroads were negotiating an agreement by which the former was
to use the latter's tracks from Blissville to Hunter's Point, where the
South Side would use the Long Dock just south of the LIRR depot. A depot
would be erected at Vernon Blvd. and Newtown Creek for the South Side
trains.

No sooner did Oliver Charlick, president of the LIRR, get wind of
this deal than he himself began making attractive offers to the New York
& Flushing RR for their property. With his many political and
business connections, plus his own and his railroad's considerable
financial backing, Charlick was easily in a position to outbid the South
Side people, and in July 1867, to no one's surprise, he obtained control
of the road. With access to Hunter's Point effectively cut off, the
South Side RR had to be content with a Brooklyn terminus. Oliver
Charlick, meanwhile, had no personal interest in the New York &
Flushing now that the South Side RR had given up hope of acquiring it,
and within a year's time (August 1868) he sold it again to a group of
Flushing business men.

This act proved to be one of Oliver Charlick's very few mistakes in
judgment, for no sooner had the road been sold than the South Side again
sought to exercise the option it claimed to have secured in May 1867,
and reportedly began preparations to construct a connection. All sorts
of legal difficulties created by the Long Island RR delayed matters, but
in October 1869, it was reported that the South Side had completed the
purchase of a portion of the New York & Flushing line. By the new
agreement the South Side became undisputed owner of the old New York
& Flushing right-of-way from Winfield Junction to the Hunter's Point
dock at a reported price of $40,000 per mile. The New York &
Flushing had, during this very month of October 1869, accommodatingly
constructed a new route for itself into Long Island City and willingly
disposed of the old route.

During November the surveying team of the South Side RR toured the
right-of-way and reported that it would be necessary to build a spur of
one and one-tenth miles from Fresh Ponds to Blissville to complete the
connection between the two roads. The exact point of the connection was
the present Forty-ninth Street and Fifty-sixth Road, immediately west of
the present Haberman station. Again the South Side found it legally
necessary to set up a subsidiary to build the spur and the "South
Side Connection Railroad Co." was duly incorporated with one of the
directors as president. On December 4, 1869 the contract to build the
connection was formally awarded to Robert White, ex-superintendent of
the road and now a director, and James Wright.

Work on the connection began on Tuesday morning, December 7. Because
the old New York & Flushing rails were of very light iron, it was
decided to rebuild the old roadbed to the same standards as the rest of
the South Side, i.e. thorough ballasting and sixty-pound rails. New
culverts and bridges were also to be constructed to withstand heavier
loads. Despite the winter weather contractors pushed the construction of
the connection energetically in December and January; early in February
the road was reported as "about completed", and to open by May
1. During the first week of April the grading of the roadbed reached
completion and the laying of the rails had begun.

Just as everything was going along smoothly, the South Side RR
experienced a repetition of its Rockaway experience. Mr. William E.
Furman, ex-sheriff and a member of one of the pioneer families of
Queens, lived in a mansion on the north side of Maspeth Ave. at 57th St.
South of the house on the now obliterated Shanty Creek Mr. Furman had
constructed one of the show places of Long Island, a complete
trout-breeding farm. Fresh water from springs passing west into Newtown
Creek was diverted through a series of S-shaped sluices, bedded with
gravel and sand for spawning. When the surveyors laid out the track
through the Furman property, they located it within about five feet of
Mr. Furman's house. He offered the railroad additional land and $2000 to
change their route, but they reportedly refused, whereupon he procured
an injunction. A week later on April 28 the injunction was lifted. It
was then given out that the trouble was not one of route, as the sheriff
had consented that the line be run within eighty feet of the house, but
as to the amount of land damage, Mr. Furman asking $8000 and the
commissioners awarding only $2250.

With peace restored the work of grading was continued and some of the
track work done. As the railroad approached closer and closer to
Hunter's Point, it decided to make renewed efforts to get possession of
the Hunter's Point dock. It happened that the Long Island RR owned the
approaches to the dock, and because President Charlick refused the right
to cross his land, the property was nearly worthless. The South Side RR
then successfully petitioned the Legislature to open a street across the
Long Island RR property, whereupon Charlick countered by producing a
lease on the old Long Dock property to himself, which he claimed to have
executed in his own favor during his brief tenure as president of the
New York & Flushing (1867-68).

The South Side, checkmated, decided that if this lease could be
vacated, they would build a depot on the Long Dock property; if not,
they would cross over the Long Island RR tracks and use the Flushing RR
depot. In July or August the railroad filed an ejectment suit against
the Long Island RR to gain possession.

Meanwhile on May 31, 1870 the physical connection between the two
roads was completed, and a South Side engine and construction train
steamed into Hunter's Point for the first time. The segment of the old
Flushing railroad between Forty-ninth Street, Blissville and Winfield
was of no immediate value to the railroad, and originated no traffic
since it passed entirely through farmland. The South Side management,
rather than tear up the track entirely, placed a dummy, acquired cheaply
from the Atlantic Avenue RR, on the route on August 6, 1870. Twenty
trips were made each way, commencing at 5:30 A.M. from Winfield, and the
last car reaching Hunter's Point at 10:27 P.M. Three stops were made on
the route: Calvary Cemetery (Greenpoint Ave., the old cemetery gate),
Penny Bridge (Laurel Hill Blvd.), and Maspeth (Borden Ave.?) We hear
nothing further of this service, nor is this stretch of track ever
mentioned again. It is not hard to surmise that the lonesome route,
which passed through no hamlets at all, originated almost no revenue
traffic. The South Side RR undoubtedly retained the right of way and the
track, for the road is again mentioned in December 1875, when there was
some idea of reviving it as a freight line.

CHAPTER IV: Operations: 1867-1872

In the preceding pages we have detailed at some length the building
of the main line of the South Side RR and the various branches
constructed shortly after. Let us now pause to consider the physical
plant of the constructed railroad insofar as that is possible after the
lapse of ninety years.

For the first three years (1867-1870) the entire South Side line was
a single-track road with sidings, exactly like the Long Island RR and
almost all the other roads of that day. There was yard trackage at South
Eighth Street terminus and at Bushwick station, and additional turnouts
were located at Hebbard's (Newtown Siding), now Fifty-second Street,
Maspeth; Fresh Pond, a long siding between Van Wyck Avenue and Jamaica,
Valley Stream, Merrick, Babylon (Carll Avenue to Deer Park Avenue) and
Patchogue. In October 1869 another turnout was added at Rockville Centre
and another at Baldwin; an engine house and turntable at Merrick was
added in the fall of 1869. The Rockaway Branch appears to have remained
single track throughout the life of the road. On this line there were
but two turnouts, one between Valley Stream and Woodmere, and the other
at Far Rockaway station.

The decision to double track most of the road (Valley Stream
westward) was taken by the directors in the fall of 1870. Such a
decision was a prestigious one, the import of which we can scarcely
appreciate today. Only the big first class roads of that day could boast
of any double-track sections, and the South Side RR was, after all, a
newcomer with a background of only three years. It was an impressive
testimony to the general prosperity of the road in the teeth of the
older Long Island Railroad's opposition and a testimony to the
directors' faith in the future.

As early as November 1870 gangs of men were put to work at a number
of points along the road. Apparently the work was done in sections, for
on November 29, 1870 the easternmost section was contracted out and on
December 5 the westernmost end was let out to a Mr. Thompson. The
oncoming of heavy winter weather in December put an end to the project,
but the work was resumed in the spring of 1871. Early in April the track
gang began at Valley Stream and by the end of the month had completed
the work as far as Springfield. Grading over the whole route from Valley
Stream to Bushwick had already been completed and the ties and iron
distributed along the line. By May 8 the track gang reached Jamaica.
Glendale was reached on June 6. In Jamaica the marshy border of Beaver
Pond prevented the enlargement of the track facilities there, and the
company adopted the expedient of buying an acre of land and taking all
the sand and gravel on it for use as fill in grading across Beaver Pond.
Some time during July the track layers reached Hebbard's at 52nd Street,
Maspeth, the western limit planned for the double track. Because of the
marshy nature of the ground around Newtown Creek and the great expense
involved in spiling, about one mile of the road was allowed to remain as
a single track stretch. Sometime in early October the second track was
thrown open to traffic for its full length.

Not all of the road's original double tracking project was carried
through to completion exactly as planned. One of the most difficult
spots was Jamaica station, where the South Side depot was squeezed
between the LIRR and Beaver Pond. In March of 1871 the company applied
to the Jamaica Village trustees for permission to straighten their
track, build a double track and erect depot buildings. This project
involved changing the line of the rails somewhat and altering the grade.
The trustees signified a willingness to have the road do this, provided
the company would agree to a few conditions, such as stationing flagmen
and laying new culverts. President Fox assured the trustees that he was
willing to agree to the conditions, but for some reason refused to put
the agreement in writing. The village trustees insisted and Fox, in a
huff, attempted to go ahead with the alterations without consent. The
trustees then secured an injunction. The railroad countered by refusing
to stop three of its commuter trains at Jamaica and threatened to
by-pass the village altogether after September 1.

The railroad was, of course, obligated to stop at Jamaica by the
terms of its charter agreement with the Village of Jamaica at the time
of its construction; there was also a mail contract with the Federal
government and a legal obligation to its commuters. Nevertheless, its
engineers were commissioned to plan a new route and in August 1871 came
up with a surprising proposal.

If one glances at the right of way of the present Montauk division of
the LIRR, it will be apparent that the road, after a comparatively long
straight run through Glendale and Richmond Hill, bends sharply eastward
at Morris Park to enter Jamaica, and then curves sharply south again
east of the village toward Cedar Manor. The engineers pointed out that
by constructing a connection from about Morris Park across to Cedar
Manor, a straight line right-of-way would result, and the expense of
spiling and filling at Beaver Pond could be saved. The right-of-way
could be cheaply obtained and the new Jamaica depot would be outside the
control of the trustees.

When the New York newspapers got wind of the dispute, they sent
reporters who turned in inaccurate and distorted accounts of the
squabbles and drummed up the whole affair into a "railroad
war." President Fox, believing some of the copy he read, even sent
two detectives to Jamaica who skulked about the village streets,
furtively eyeing the citizens for signs of violence against company
property. Late in August the entire squabble collapsed when President
Fox signed the original terms proffered by the trustees two months
before. Nothing further was heard of by-passing the village, and the
railroad, in token of peace, promised to build a new depot and repair
all cattle guards.

When the road first opened in 1867, all the offices and shops were
located in Jamaica. Since the road owned very little rolling stock and
land at first, these facilities were poor and limited; one flimsy engine
house blew down in a winter storm in December 1867. Just as soon as the
decision was made to fix the Brooklyn terminus at Bushwick, all the
administrative offices were transferred there on August 5, 1868, and the
engine and machine shops soon followed.

The problem of handling freight inspired the construction of a dock
facility on Newtown Creek. The Brooklyn terminus at Bushwick was a mile
from the waterfront and the single track line through crowded
residential streets made freight car movements difficult; one of the
most profitable viz. the handling of manure, was expressly forbidden as
a health menace. In August 1868 the directors planned the spur to the
new dock and in March 1869 a bill was introduced into the Legislature to
permit such construction. Over the summer the single track spur was laid
from the main line at about the present junction of Metropolitan &
Flushing Avenues north to the dock just above where Maspeth Avenue used
to intersect Newtown Creek before it was obliterated by the Navy Yard.
Whether there were cranes here for loading and unloading manure barges
is uncertain; however, the railroad went ahead in February 1872 with
another freight dock at Hunter's Point installing $25,000 worth of
facilities.

From the day the South Side RR opened in October 1867, it seems to
have been well patronized and successful. Part of the reason for this
prosperity was undoubtedly its newness: new engines, new cars, and a new
and heavy roadbed. The South Side also had the advantage over its rival,
the Long Island RR, of passing directly through old and well-established
villages all along the south shore. A third attraction was its fare
schedule, which generally set rates slightly below those of the Long
Island RR. Between 1868 and 1872 the following fares prevailed from New
York or Brooklyn:

Fresh Pond or Glendale

15¢

South Oyster Bay (Massapequa)

85¢

Richmond Hill or Jamaica

18¢

Amityville

95¢

Springfield

40¢

Breslau (Lindenhurst) &

Valley Stream

45¢

Babylon

1.10

Lynbrook

50¢

Bayshore

1.20

Rockville Centre

55¢

Islip

1.35

Baldwin

60¢

Oakdale

1.45

Freeport

65¢

Sayville

1.55

Merrick

70¢

Bayport

1.60

Wantagh (Ridgewood)

75¢

Patchogue

1.65

A glance at this table reveals that where the South Side was in
competition with the Long Island RR between New York and Jamaica, the
fares were very low (18¢) but east of Jamaica the rates rose sharply
and then leveled off. In February 1869 the South Side offered the
residents of Jamaica single tickets for only 15¢ or a book of 100 for
$12. When Charlick found his rival getting all the traffic, he cut his
rates to the same figure, then fearful of a war, arranged a meeting with
Fox, resulting in a non-raiding agreement. Within a week the fare rose
to its old level of 18¢ to the disgruntlement of the Jamaica citizenry.

The South Side was not only reasonable in its fare policy but rather
generous with its free passes. Annual passes were handed out to all
pastors living along the line of the road, and in addition, free passes
were distributed to whole delegations of clergymen attending councils.

From the sparse statistics of a century ago and scattered newspaper
notices, we gather a very favorable impression of passenger and freight
revenues on the South Side RR:

Year

Passengers

Freight, in tons

1868

no figures

none*

1869

246,660

51,645

1870

586,375

76,530

1871

611,782

67,077

1872

617,899

83,671

1873

679,055

65,663**

*No freight trains as yet operated.

**January-November only.

A brief newspaper mention that appeared after the road was in
operation only two months reports that receipts from passengers were
about $100 a day and $35 from the express business. With the spring of
1869 glowing newspaper accounts appear for the first time of pleasure
excursions over the roads to "distant points" like Babylon and
Patchogue. The verdant countryside, the new and perfect track and
equipment, the picturesque villages-all are eloquently extolled in a
rich, rhapsodic prose that is prophetic of the lush press-agentry of a
later age. The many resort hotels at Babylon and Islip, the beach at
Fire Island all exerted their attraction for the city-bound folk of
Williamsburgh and Brooklyn. The chief advantage of the Long Island
resorts was their nearness and cheapness; the traveler had no need to
travel 100 miles and more, and the rates were not extortionate. The
holidays were of course the peak days on the road: on July 4, 1869 over
3000 people were hauled in the twenty-one coaches then owned by the
road.

In March 1870 we read "During the first 15 days of last month
the receipts of the road from passenger traffic were $12,000 in excess
of any previous winter months. The trade has increased gradually and
this month it is nearly as great as it was during the first months of
last year." Further testimony to the great crowds carried
especially to Rockaway appears again in 1871.

One of the greatest stimuli to both passenger and freight traffic was
the new city of Breslau, renamed Lindenhurst as of July 14, 1891. During
1861-69 a Mr. Wellwood bought up 5000 acres of farmland near Babylon and
laid out the tract in 25 x 100-foot lots. In October 1869 he named the
place "Breslau" and formed a partnership with Charles S.
Schleier of Brooklyn and formerly of Breslau in Silesia. Together the
men promoted lots and campaigned intensively among the Germans of the
metropolitan area. By 1872 there were about 400 houses and a population
of about 3500. All the building materials for Breslau had to be
transported by rail over the South Side RR and these shipments formed
the bulk of the freight traffic over the road.

Both Wellwood and Schleier organized giant free excursion rides to
the new Zion in the wilderness and great crowds of Germans turned out
for the free ride, music, beer and oratory. On April 18, 1870 the
largest known excursion train in the history of Long Island ran from
Bushwick to Breslau, consisting of twenty-one cars, sixteen of them
gondolas provided with temporary seats and drawn by two locomotives. Two
thousand men, women and children turned out for this giant excursion and
danced and drank the day away while professional spielers extolled the
virtues of the new metropolis and inveigled the unwary into investment.

By May and June 1870 we hear that the South Side had every available
freight car in constant use hauling building materials for Breslau and
other smaller growing communities along the line. Governor Hoffman of
New York State himself laid the corner stone of the new Breslau on June
6, 1870.

Collection: Art Huneke

Service all along the South Side line was fairly good. In the fall of
1867 when the road opened and during 1868, there were two trains a day
each way. In 1869 this was increased to six trains a day, and in 1870
the heavy traffic warranted eight trains each way; in the 1871-72 season
nine trains operated daily. Most of the trains ran through from South
Eighth Street to Patchogue; passengers for Rockaway changed at Valley
Stream, where a shuttle train waited to make the run down the peninsula.
In July and August, however, a "Rockaway Express" ran through
to the beach stopping only at Jamaica and Valley Stream beginning in
1869 and in 1870 two more such expresses were added. The trip was
accomplished in only forty minutes and enabled the average Brooklynite
to spend four hours at the beach and still return home by 6 P.M. In the
1871 season the railroad inaugurated moonlight excursions to the beach,
the return trip leaving the Pavilion at 1 A.M.

South Side
Railroad of Long Island Schedule Effective: 05/15/1871
Archive: Art Huneke

When the South Side began running express trains on the main line
beginning in 1869, it unwittingly ran into difficulties. The crack train
left Bushwick and made no further stops until reaching Merrick, Mr.
Fox's own town, after which it made all stops to Patchogue. This
non-stop run of twenty-three miles outraged the citizens of Jamaica who
took mortal offense at the affront. The local journals commented acidly
on the road's indifference to accommodation and spitefully commented on
the danger to life and limb from expresses hurtling through the village
at thirty miles per hour. The rival Long Island RR, hitherto reviled and
scorned by the press, suddenly found itself basking in the sun of
editorial favor.

In 1870-71 the South Side made efforts to speed up the service,
especially the expresses. The double track, laid with sixty-pound rail,
was a step in this direction and so was the purchase of the newest and
fastest locomotive available. The advertised express speed was thirty
miles per hour but this could be exceeded on occasion. In September 1870
a new South Side engine, the "Massapequa," drawing two cars
bearing President Fox and several of the directors, made a speed run
between Amityville and Babylon, a distance of six miles in five minutes.
This new record of seventy miles per hour was the fastest known on Long
Island up to that time.

One feature of the South Side operation would strike us today as
being rather curious: there were no trains on Sunday. President Fox was
a practicing Baptist, and most of the directors were eastern Long Island
men reared in the strict tradition of Sabbath observance. The people of
Brooklyn were not in accord with this uncompromising Sabbatarianism, and
regarded the absence of Sunday trains as a hypocritical device on the
part of wealthy Rockaway property owners to keep the beach on Sunday to
themselves. Fox and his directors regarded the prosperity of the road as
the visible proof of divine approval of his policy and resisted all
attempts to inaugurate Sunday service. Certainly, it was noteworthy that
the South Side RR remained conspicuously free of major accidents. True,
there were individuals, both employees and juveniles, who met their
deaths through taking reckless chances, but the road had escaped those
spectacular disasters, the grisly accounts of which filled the press of
the day.

A few minor accidents reach our ears:

May 4, 1869: by error an engine was dispatched from the
Williamsburgh office over the track which belonged to an express
then nearly due. The engine plowed into the express train near
Bushwick doing some damage to the two engines, but none to the
passengers.

August, 1871: The Babylon accommodation train was thrown from the
track at Newtown Switch by a misplaced switch. The locomotive and
three cars narrowly escaped falling down a steep embankment. No one
was hurt, but travel was interrupted for about five hours.

August 26, 1871: About 8:30 A.M. as the Fire Island Express was
approaching Freeport from Merrick, it struck a broken rail which
threw the three rear cars from the track down a five-foot
embankment, leaving one overturned. Several persons were injured by
broken glass.

November 15, 1871: The Merrick accommodation train coming out of
Bushwick struck a Metropolitan Avenue horse car which had derailed
on the crossing. When the crew and passengers failed to rerail it in
time, they left and the locomotive struck the stalled car, smashing
it to pieces. No one was hurt.

January 27, 1871: Two passenger trains were scheduled to pass each
other at Jamaica. The eastbound one lay waiting at the siding. The
westbound train, as it approached, split the switch, derailed, and
sideswiped the cylinder head of the standing engine. Both engines
were damaged but no one was hurt.

July 4, 1872: A train pulled by the Charles Fox left Bushwick
Station later than it should have in order to reach the double track
at Newtown Switch on time. Meanwhile a westbound excursion train of
six cars from Rockaway, drawn by the engine R. O. Colt, left
the double track at Newtown Switch and entered on the single track
for Bushwick. Hardly had the engine and two of the six cars moved
onto the single line when the Fox loomed up. Neither engine
could stop despite flags and whistle blasts and a collision
occurred. Since the Fox was making about twenty-eight miles per hour
on the steep upgrade at that point, no serious damage occurred.
However, three coaches on the Rockaway train had their platforms
telescoped by the impact, and three persons who were standing
outside, lost their lives by being crushed in the splintered wood.
This was the first passenger fatality in the history of the road.

Soon after the road was opened, it became obvious very quickly that
the dispatching of trains would be difficult if not impossible without a
telegraph system in operation all along the line. In February 1868,
therefore, the directors of the South Side RR Co. organized a subsidiary
called the South Side Telegraph Co., allocated $2000 to the project, and
floated a new issue of stock to finance the cost of construction between
Bushwick and Babylon. Construction of the new telegraph line was begun
almost immediately (February 1868) and the company was shortly
reorganized as the L.I. Telegraph Co. in order to build branches to any
other communities where the inhabitants would subsidize the cost of
extension.

As early as the second week of February 1868 the poles began going up
along the railroad tracks. The system was scheduled to be completed and
in working order by March 23. On April 1, 1868 the line was completed
between Rockville Centre and Babylon and the first message sent over the
wires that day. Meanwhile the line crew was busily working its way
westward to Williamsburgh. The people of Hempstead began collecting a
subscription of money to defray the cost of building a branch of the
telegraph from Valley Stream to that village in January and completed it
by mid-May. In August a branch telegraph line was extended down the
Rockaway Branch from Valley Stream to Far Rockaway.

A year later in September 1869 the South Side RR went through the
legal process of formally merging the Long Island Telegraph Co. into its
own corporate structure. Preparations were made at the same time to
build the final segment between Babylon and Patchogue. The last we hear
of the telegraph system is a cryptic note of April 1870 stating that the
South Side RR bought in the L.I. Telegraph Co. at foreclosure sale.
Lacking more definite information, we must assume that this was simply a
legal maneuver by the railroad to secure possession of the wires without
the encumbrances of bond and stock obligations to pay off, such
obligations being usually wiped out in a foreclosure proceeding.

Closely allied with the telegraph service was the handling and
dispatching of the United States mails. Previous to the coming of the
South Side RR, the Long Island RR enjoyed a monopoly of the government
contracts for transporting the mails on Long Island. When the South Side
opened in 1867, it was to be expected that mail for the south side
villages would fall to the new company. Somewhat surprisingly, this
proved to be a slow process. The transfer appears to have been done
piece-meal at first, at certain stations and not at others. For example,
the mail at Amityville was changed over from the Long Island~ RR to the
South Side on August 10, 1868. Not till July 1, 1869, however, was the
mail for all the south side villages handed over to the South Side RR.
Perhaps Oliver Charlick's potent political influence was effective in
delaying the loss of the profitable mail contracts on his road.

In February 1870 the Postmaster-General further improved the speed of
delivery of letters on Long Island by inaugurating a new mail route
between Medford station on the Long Island RR and Patchogue on the South
Side. Previously, all mail for the south shore villages originating at
Long Island RR stations had been sent into New York and then transferred
to the South Side. With the new service mail was transferred in
mid-island the same day and delivered that much faster. Whatever further
arrangements may have existed are not known today because of the paucity
of our information.

The rolling stock of the South Side RR is rather well-known thanks to
many scattered notices in the press of the day and the road's own
reports to the State Engineer. In terms of mere numbers, this is the
South Side's equipment broken down into types:

Year

Engines

Passenger

Baggage

Freight

Coaches

Mail

1868

8

17

3

41

1869

11

21

5

75

1870

17

31

7

89

1871

18

35

7

89

1872

19

35

7

114

1873

20

50

5

117

Nearly all the South Side Railroad's locomotives were of the typical
American 4-4-0 type. In 1867 only one engine, the Charles Fox was
operating; in 1868 the Daniel T. Willets, the Alex McCue,
the R. O. Colt, the John Tappan and the J. B. Johnston
arrived, all named after the officers of the road. In 1869 two more were
purchased, the Fire Fly and the Pewit. The year 1870
marked a great increase in equipment purchases for in this year were
bought the A. J. Bergen, the F. B. Baldwin, the A.
McLean, the South Side, the Springfield, the Massapequa,
the Merrick and the Norwood. The final purchases, made in
1872-73, were the Islip, Patchogue and the Norwood.

It is easy to discern two different naming patterns in use: the first
eleven honored the company's president and officers; the Pewit
forms an exception, coming from the Central RR of NJ; the Fire Fly
appears to be a fanciful name: all the remaining eight engines derive
their names from Long Island localities.

We are in a much poorer position regarding the background of the
passenger coaches. The builder and the date of construction alike of the
first thirty-five coaches have not come down to us; we do know the last
fifteen coaches were turned out by the New Haven Car Co. From pictures
we know that the coaches resembled the typical railroad cars of the
Sixties-all wood with a flat raised roof, slightly rounded over the
platforms, thirteen to fifteen windows to a side and lighted with gas
lamps. Combination baggage and express cars had three doors cut
irregularly into the sides.

As for the dummies in use on Boerum Street and Broadway, Brooklyn,
our information is meagre. The first dummy, the City of Brooklyn
was placed in service on July 31, 1869. Later three others were added in
1870, but we know the name of only one, the City of Breslau.

Several personalities who were important in making the South Side RR
of Long Island a success bear mentioning. Charles Fox was a New Yorker
associated with F. B. Baldwin, an alderman for several years and an
active man in real estate both in New York and on Long Island. Baldwin
appears to have started the present village named after him and induced
Fox to make other large investments in Baldwin and Merrick. Fox owned so
much of the land there that the street names of today--Foxhurst Road,
Fox Avenue--still preserve his memory. He was a devout Baptist and not
only opposed running trains on Sunday while he was president but also
was a strong temperance man. An order issued by him in May 1870 was
posted in all crew quarters of the South Side RR: "The use of
intoxicating liquors, profane or obscene language, or smoking by the
employees of the South Side RR of L.I., while on duty, is strictly
forbidden." In January 1873 Fox sold out all his interests in the
SSRR and devoted himself to building apartment houses in New York. He
died on September 20, 1879 as a result of the internal injuries he
received in the station platform accident of 1867. He was sixty-three at
the time of his death.

Willet Charlick of Freeport, one of the most active promoters of the
road, lived just long enough to see it completed. On July 16, 1869 he
suffered a heart attack in New York and died. His brother, Oliver
Charlick, forgave him sufficiently to personally escort the remains from
New York to Hempstead in the Director's Car.

The Willow Tree Disaster of April 23, 1869 on the Long Island RR
killed two other men associated with the South Side RR, Thomas C.
Shanahan, the contractor who built the road, and William C. Rushmore,
the treasurer. The latter's death was particularly embarrassing because
many shortages turned up in his accounts after his death.

The superintendents of the road seem to have all been capable men.
The first man was Robert White, ex-superintendent of the Long Island RR
and himself a railroad contractor. He resided at Merrick with President
Fox and appears to have been genuinely popular on the road. We read that
at Christmas of 1868 the employees gave him a tree loaded with presents
and White responded with a supper party thereafter. In October 1869
White left his post and acted as contractor for the New York &
Hempstead road between Valley Stream and Hempstead. Charles W. Douglas
of 56 Driggs Ave., Brooklyn, an engineer and a man of large experience,
was the next superintendent. After three years' service Douglass was
replaced in September 1872 by Walter Homan, the former trackmaster of
the road.

SSRR Pass issued
for 1872, good until 12/31/1972 signed by Superintendent Charles W.
Douglas prior to 09/1972 Archive: Art Huneke

Curiously, only one humble conductor on the South Side is ever
mentioned in the press, one Robert Cochran, but he turns up often and
always with favorable comment. He joined the road in 1867 and was cited
often for his sunny disposition and genial manner. Later he retired and
opened a bar at the Broadway Ferry. Considering the rarity of genial
conductors in any age, it seems justifiable to honor this man's memory
in these pages.

One final interesting detail remains to be chronicled--mention of
some of the strange and curious extensions proposed but never built. In
the summer of 1868 the residents of East New York and Woodhaven,
dissatisfied with railroad accommodations then available, asked the
South Side RR to build a branch along Cypress Avenue, Cypress Hills
Street, Euclid Avenue, and Rockaway Boulevard to a point in Woodhaven.
It would be interesting to know what President Fox thought of this
fantastic proposal. A variation on this was proposed in March 1869 with
the suggestion that the railroad build to the Ridgewood pumping station
at Sunrise Highway and Atlantic Avenue and then straight south to Spring
Creek. The coal delivered to the pumping station was supposed to support
the line. The final proposal was one made by the residents of Queens
Village who were dissatisfied with the LIRR. They sent committees to
President Fox and engaged surveyors to map out a branch roughly
paralleling Springfield Boulevard, but we hear nothing of it after 1871.

CHAPTER V: The Hempstead Branch: The Tangled
Affairs of the New York & Hempstead

When the South Side RR successfully opened its line to Babylon in
October 1867, there were many towns on Long Island that rejoiced to see
the Long Island Railroad's monopoly on travel at last broken. Oliver
Charlick, though a capable administrator and an able man in finance, was
almost completely devoid of a sense of tact and finesse in handling
people and as the years passed, few men on Long Island were more
disliked or more pilloried in the press than he.

Hempstead, one of the largest villages along the line, had been
served since 1839 by a shuttle train which carried passengers north to
the main line at Mineola. Over a period of years the single coach had
been drawn by horses and later a very small steam engine. Dissatisfied
with these primitive accommodations, the residents of Hempstead resolved
to secure for themselves an outlet to the much newer and more liberal
South Side RR.

The first step was the legal one of incorporating the Hempstead and
Rockaway Railroad, to run from Valley Stream to Hempstead. In April 1868
a campaign was started and $30,000 was raised to insure the connection;
surveyors were put to work immediately to layout a route to Valley
Stream. By June 1 a contract for building the branch was awarded to
Vandewater Smith of Hempstead, the completion date being set at July 1.
Because of financial difficulties the work soon came to a standstill and
the Long Island RR increased the difficulties by securing an injunction
on August 29 enjoining Smith's crew from crossing a portion of their
terminal property at Hempstead.

A whole year passed by without action of any kind; then, in September
1869, several public meetings were again held to revive the project, and
a renewed effort was made to raise money through stock sales. In the
first week of January 1870 it was reported that the stock was being
rapidly marketed. So well was the money coming in that ground was broken
for the new branch on January 22, 1870 despite the frost and ice of
winter.

In March the backers of the new project appear to have gone far
beyond the idea of building a mere branch line to Valley Stream, for
they incorporated themselves at Albany under the pretentious title of
the New York & Hempstead Plains R.R. and mapped a route from
Hempstead through Valley Stream, thence south of Jamaica through
Flatbush and New Utrecht to a point on the East River at Sixty-fifth
Street, Bay Ridge. It was hoped to complete the road to Valley Stream
over the summer of 1870 and the remainder the following year. Grading
for the line began on March 21, 1870.

In April 1870 the contract for building the new railroad was again
awarded to Vandewater Smith, who made arrangements with Robert White to
do the actual physical work. On April 26 ground was broken and the
target date was again set for July 1. The Hempstead Brass Band turned
out and put on a grand street concert on the evening that the contract
was signed. All during July the work moved on briskly and in August
"two new and beautiful coaches" were secured and one tank
saddle engine from the Grant Locomotive works, named the William L.
Wood. Both were stored in the South Side Railroad's engine house at
Jamaica.

By September 1, 1870 the grading and the laying of the rails through
what is now Malverne and Lakeview was progressing satisfactorily. On
August 31, 1870 a special excursion train, consisting of friends and
guests of the road, ran over the finished portion of the railroad. The
grading had been completed the entire distance and the track was laid to
within a mile and a quarter of Hempstead. Everyone was well pleased and
complimented Mr. Smith on his work. On September 12, 1870 the first
train ran all the way through to Hempstead village and for two weeks
thereafter occasional trains operated back and forth. On September 28,
1870 the road was publicly opened and trains ran on a regular schedule
for the first time.

Operation was entrusted to the South Side RR Co. who were to operate
the line as their Hempstead Branch pending the completion of the rest of
the road to Bay Ridge. The fare was set at 50¢ a trip to Brooklyn or
New York or $75 a year. The new road left the South Side Valley Stream
station at Fifth Street and struck out northeastward. It crossed
Franklin Avenue, Malverne, close to the present little stream between
Wheeler Avenue and Cornwell Avenue; here was situated the little hamlet
and station of Bridgeport. The track then paralleled Cornwell Avenue
exactly, crossing Hempstead Avenue, where was located the tiny
settlement and station of Norwood. The Pine Brook was crossed on a
little bridge only a foot or two above water level. At Woodfield Avenue
and Oak Place was Woodfield depot. Immediately to the east the track
crossed the Schodack Brook on an embankment and culvert about five or
six feet above the stream bed. As the track approached Hempstead
village, it crossed the Horse Brook or Rockaway Brook on a small bridge
and then paralleled the brook a few blocks, terminating at a little
station on the west side of Greenwich Street midway between Front Street
and Prospect Street. Here there was a short stretch of double track but
no turntable. Service was maintained with about six trains a day in each
direction.

The local residents of both Hempstead and Valley Stream turned out en
masse to ride the new facility, reaching a peak of 1028 in one day. The
company hoped to build a handsome depot in Hempstead and covered
platforms as soon as practicable. By mid-November the ticket office and
waiting room were fitted up and most of the travel to New York
patronized the new road in preference to the Long Island RR.

With the Valley Stream-Hempstead link completed and in operation, the
New York & Hempstead Plains RR turned its attention to the west end
of its route. In August the N. J. Bergen farm at Sixty-fifth Street, Bay
Ridge, with a waterfront of 800 feet had been secured. The directors
also voted to alter slightly northward the projected route, so as to
pass through East New York, Woodhaven and Springfield. At least part of
the reason for this was the urging of several committees of East New
York civic officials who hoped the new road would help boom the town. In
Woodhaven some of the right of way was donated, and Florian Grosjean,
president of the Lalance and Grosjean Agate Works, the biggest industry
in Woodhaven, offered to give any other land needed. Broadway, the
present 101st Avenue, was considered the ideal east-west route for the
company to take through Woodhaven to Jamaica. At Bay Ridge it was
pointed out that the company's docks faced the great coal depot at
Elizabeth, New Jersey, and that the company could develop a vast
business in ferrying loaded freight cars across the bay and directly
onto Long Island without breaking bulk.

In the effort of construction and land acquisition the company must
have over-extended itself, for, pressed by creditors, the road was
foreclosed and sold at sheriff's sale to Electus B. Litchfield, the
developer of Valley Stream on December 17, 1870. Just the day before,
the lone engine and two cars had been seized and attached for debt by
creditors. The trouble was not caused by any fault on the part of the
company but by the shortcomings of the contractors who were for the time
being running the road. As a by-product of the reorganization of the
road the two original companies were merged on July 7, 1871 to form the
New York and Hempstead Railroad. The new organization contained some
powerful and wealthy men and completion of the road seemed assured.

The brief trouble was not permitted to disrupt the ambitious plans of
the promoters. In December 1870 surveyors mapped out a continuation of
the line eastward from Hempstead across the Hempstead Plains to Breslau.
In February 1871 another change of route was made on the western end of
the railroad, the track being now scheduled to pass through Jamaica and
terminate in Garden City. In East New York several farmers donated a
right of way to the railroad, and by March the contract was let for
grading and constructing the road to one Patrick Shields of Jamaica who
immediately put a large force to work at three points, Flatbush, New
Lots and Woodhaven. By mid-June the grading gangs had progressed as far
as Woodhaven Boulevard and by mid-August to Dunton.

In the midst of all this negotiating the directors of the road were
startled to receive word that their one and only locomotive, the W. L.
Wood, had blown up in Hempstead station on July 18, 1871. Investigation
disclosed that the boiler had burst, scattering fragments in all
directions. The afternoon train was just about to start when the
explosion took place. The engine was immediately brought to Brooklyn for
repairs which were expected to cost about $3000, and in the meantime
such South Side engines as could be spared gave service on the branch.

The financial and administrative condition of the road meanwhile was
getting more complicated daily. A Mr. Pusey, the agent who had furnished
the iron to build the road, had taken in payment the company's notes,
and some of the bonds to the extent of $46,000, double the amount of the
notes, as collateral security. When the notes became due, the company
paid a small portion and by way of settlement, Pusey promised to do
certain things for the railroad, provided he became the next president.
The company agreed to elect him, but it was soon discovered that his
promises were not only not being fulfilled, but that he was secretly
plotting to secure possession of the whole road. The directors then
unseated him and elected another in his place.

Pusey, in anger, had the bonds sold and bought them in himself at 25¢
on the dollar. As this paid only half of what was due him, he commenced
an action for foreclosure against the company. The directors offered to
pay Pusey all the debt with interest, if he would surrender the bonds
lodged with him as collateral. Pusey refused and demanded $5000 as a
bonus for such action. This the directors declined to pay and served an
injunction on him restraining him from pressing his foreclosure suit.
The contest then remained deadlocked for seven months (June
1871-December 1871).

Late in December 1871, the court which had sat on the injunction
dispute, gave a verdict dissolving the injunction. The Brooklyn Trust
Co., holders of the mortgage bonds, appointed on its own a receiver
without seeking a court order, or even more surprising, notifying the
railroad. The receiver appointed was Seaman Snediker of Hempstead, the
road's first president, who immediately made arrangements to take over
and notified the one and only train crew to take orders from him. The
conductor at first agreed, but later made his returns as usual to Mr.
Goetchius, the treasurer of the road.

On the evening of January 8, 1872 Mr. Snediker and Mr. Pusey went to
Hempstead and seized the road as agents of the trust company on the
advice of the bank's counsel. As the last train came into Hempstead that
night, Snediker and Pusey impounded it and had the conductor arrested
for embezzlement. The hapless conductor was arraigned in court and
agreed to hand over three days' receipts to Snediker as agent of the
bank.

Late that night, Snediker and Pusey went to sleep in one of the two
coaches. Very early the next morning, E. B. Litchfield, representing the
owners, and Mr. Goetchius, the treasurer, arrived in Hempstead and found
Snediker and Pusey and a constable with a few hired men asleep in their
car. Mettler, the lone engineer, was on his engine, readying it. Very
quietly Litchfield and Goetchius, with some employees loyal to them,
detached the engine and proceeded with it some distance down the tracks
so that it could not be secured. The noise awakened Snediker and Pusey,
who rushed out and threw sticks and stumps on the track to stop the
engine but in vain. Pusey ordered Mettler to return and attach his
engine to the coach but instead of doing so, he ran up and down the
tracks several times and refused to heed Pusey's orders.

Litchfield then advised Mettler to back into the station to pick up
the passengers for the first trip out; the usual number were waiting and
wondering what was going on. As the engine approached the platform,
Pusey suddenly produced a pistol and fired two shots, one of which
dented the dome in front of the engineer. Pusey was excited and claimed
that he was aiming at the engine and not the crew. The passengers were
upset by the unexpected gunplay and the cry arose to lynch Pusey. Calmer
heads cooled the fight and the dispute was settled by the passengers who
brought the train to Valley Stream themselves.

Pusey stayed behind and returned on a later train to New York but a
warrant was issued for his arrest and a constable took the next train in
pursuit. Things had reached such a point of confusion that a conference
was arranged of all interested parties. The trust company was taken to
task for appointing a receiver without court approval; when Snediker
realized his false position, he turned over moneys and tickets in his
possession to Goetchius, the treasurer. This ended the "war"
and trains again ran peacefully and regularly.

In February 1872 Electus B. Litchfield resigned the strenuous
presidency of the road and was succeeded by Henry M. Onderdonk, editor
of the Hempstead Inquirer. Onderdonk was succeeded in turn by
Abraham Wakeman in September 1872.

In the spring of 1872 the contractor for the west end of the road,
Mr. Louis Broad, died, and for some months thereafter work was
suspended. On August 15, 1872 work was again resumed on the Bay Ridge
end, and on the eastern extremity of the road surveyors Cornelius and
Seaman completed the line of the road from Jerusalem School House
(presently the junction of Wantagh Avenue and the Southern State
Parkway) to the Hempstead depot. As winter closed in mid-November the
contract for the west end was re-awarded to Walker, Fairchild &
Clarke, and the east end to Shields & Rattin.

Nothing could be done over the winter months but with the end of
March, the whole project sprang to life and fresh details were released
to the press. The estimated cost of the road from Bay Ridge to Valley
Stream was $600,000 including right of way and dockage. The Bay Ridge
dock was to be 850 feet long, extending into the water 500 feet on one
side and 800 feet on the other, with a minimum depth of water of fifteen
feet. The Bergen farm of seven acres provided abundant land for freight
and passenger facilities. A short distance inland was the most expensive
grading on the whole road, one item being a tunnel 1780 feet long with
an opening 24 x I6½ feet from the ridge to Sixth Avenue. Beyond that
point and for the next five miles, the road was planned to pass under
the major Brooklyn highways midway between Sixty-fifth and Sixty-sixth
Streets.

The deepest cut was forty-three feet at the Ridge itself; the average
for a mile or so being about thirty feet with a width of thirty-two
feet. Most of the sand and gravel being removed was used to fill in the
hollows and bring up to grade Sixty-fifth and Sixty-sixth Streets. From
Fifth Avenue to the shore there were in June 1873 a force of about
ninety men with forty horses and carts. The cut passed right through the
old apple orchard of the Bergen farm, and the old mansion commanding a
fine view of the bay degenerated into a bunkhouse for the shelter of the
workmen. Between the shore and Third Avenue ties had already been laid
on the graded area and all was in readiness for the iron. All New
Utrecht seemed to be booming as a result of the influx of men and
machinery and optimists fondly looked forward to broad vistas of new
streets and suburbs in every direction. The entire project reminds us
startlingly of the present-day Bay Ridge Division of the Long Island
Railroad, built only a short time afterward and to a very similar
pattern, and utilizing this same roadbed.

At Bay Ridge a dock crib and dredging machine were anchored and set
to work to dig out the required depth, while at Hempstead the contractor
was building an embankment across the low lands between Greenwich and
Henry Streets, and further grading was being done through the east end
of the village towards Uniondale.

Great things were hoped from the new road. A large backward area of
Kings County and an empty area south of Jamaica were to be developed and
opened to commerce and settlement. The Bay Ridge docks were so favorably
situated with reference to the Jersey Central and Lackawanna docks that
the lion's share of bulk freight would pass over the new road. In March
1873 the directors of the road opened conversations with Oliver Charlick
for permission to use the Long Island RR rails between East New York and
Dunton, and with President Fox of the South Side for the use of the
tracks between Dunton and Valley Stream.

To the surprise of all, the New York & Hempstead Plains RR in
June 1873 announced that it had leased its entire road and project to
the South Side RR for a period of 999 years. The New York &
Hempstead was to retain its identity as a separate organization for a
while yet, but once the Bay Ridge project was completed, it was likely
to be merged in the South Side organization.

In the fall of 1873 when the New York & Hempstead project was at
its peak and as certain of completion as any other commercial venture in
the city, a completely unforeseen disaster struck a mortal blow to the
whole project. In October 1873 a financial panic struck the market, and
within a week the banking house of Jacob R. Shipherd & Co., owners
of the South Side RR, collapsed in the general ruin. All work on the New
York & Hempstead RR came to a halt, and the grandiose project of a
great new system collapsed never to be revived. The short stretch of
road that had been operating between Hempstead and Valley Stream,
instead of being a major portion of a new railroad network, sank to the
status of an unimportant branch, and its subsequent history dependent on
the changing fortunes of the South Side RR.

CHAPTER VI: The South Side Falls to the Long
Island

New Year's Day of 1873 had passed but a short time when the traveling
public was startled to learn from the newspapers that President Fox and
his Board of Directors had sold out their interest in the South Side RR
to the Boston banking firm of Jacob R. Shipherd & Co. of 24 Pine
Street, New York. It was reported that the negotiations were consummated
only when it was agreed at a meeting of the principal shareholders for
each to sell a bare majority of his interest and retain the rest. Thus,
not a single owner would be bought out, and the corporation would retain
as large a group of the same individual stockholders as before.

The actual transfer of control took place on January 21, 1873, and,
as a result, several of the important posts in the management of the
company changed hands. Jacob Shipherd himself became president of the
road, and a Mr. L. S. Canfield from the Warren & Franklin RR of
Pennsylvania became superintendent.

It is an old saying that a new broom sweeps clean, and the new
management was determined to let the employees and the public know that
they proposed to infuse renewed energy and vim into the road. For
example, on the morning of January 28 Mr. Canfield personally ran a
train from Hempstead over the branch and main line to South Eighth
Street in the record time of forty-eight minutes to the great pleasure
of the commuters who usually made the run in an hour and twenty minutes.

To further impress the travelling public, and attract riders,
Canfield made a fetish of running trains exactly on time all through the
snows and heavy weather of January 1873. He gave Hempstead an express
service and put on night trains to ingratiate himself with travellers.
There was excellent reason to do this. The South Side RR originally had
only the Long Island RR for a competitor and this competition was
limited largely to Jamaica. With the opening of the Hempstead Branch,
there was renewed rivalry for the traffic of Hempstead. Then in 1873 the
competition became still keener, for, in August, Alexander T. Stewart,
the merchant prince who founded Garden City, opened his Central Railroad
of Long Island from Flushing through Floral Park and Hempstead eastward
to Farmingdale and Babylon, and with a short branch to Hempstead. That
meant that the South Side's monopoly of travel through the south shore
villages was broken, and that all three roads competed fiercely for the
business of Hempstead. The anxious concern of the South Side RR,
therefore, to make travel as attractive as possible was not altogether
an act of altruism; to a degree it was dictated by the need to survive.
The company even made plans to extend the double track at once from
Valley Stream to Babylon and contracted for the iron; four more engines
were ordered (and later delivered) and overtures were made to Oliver
Charlick for the purchase of the Sag Harbor Branch of the Long Island RR
to lay the groundwork for a through road all along the south shore.

South Side
Railroad of Long Island newspaper ad: THE DAILY
TELEGRAPH, NY Saturday, June 21, 1873
Archive: Art Huneke

The spring and summer of 1873 passed pleasantly enough; the railroad
held its own fairly well in the face of competition with its two rivals.
Then in September a disaster occurred that was to change completely the
subsequent history of the road. On September 18 the great banking house
of Jay Cooke & Co. closed its doors in New York, Philadelphia and
Washington. Cooke's fame had begun during the Civil War with his
successful flotation of the bond issues by which the North financed its
operations. After the war he turned his attention to railway securities,
and in attempting to back the Northern Pacific RR, he met disaster. The
huge sums needed for this undertaking could not be obtained without
European assistance, and after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, foreign
capital became harder and harder to get. Cooke tied up so much of his
firm's resources in advances to the railroad that his partners finally
took the drastic step of closing. Cooke's company was regarded as the
last word in solvency, and when its closing was announced, the Exchange
was immediately thrown into a wild panic. Two days later, the Exchange
itself was closed and so remained for ten days. A run on the banks
occurred, and industrial concerns, dependent on banks, failed by the
score. Bankruptcies followed thick and fast and business came to a
standstill.

South Side
Railroad Pass 09/1873Archive: Art Huneke

Among the lesser banking houses involved in the general ruin was
Jacob R. Shipherd & Co., the new owners of the South Side RR. Only a
month later--November 1873--the trustees of the third mortgage bonds
demanded that the road be placed in receivership. The directors, after
vain consultation, agreed to surrender the road. Over the winter months
a number of suits were instituted against the South Side RR by the
holders of the first and second mortgage bonds when the interest coupons
were not redeemed.

In the spring of 1874 a long wrangle broke out between the State and
Federal courts as to jurisdiction. Each side appointed a different set
of officials to look after the running of the road, and there were
absurd incidents of appointees barricading themselves in the company's
various offices and converting the premises into a fort against the
opposing party, seizure of books, suits and countersuits to repossess
them, smashed padlocks, etc.

On September 16, 1874 the property of the road was put up at public
auction. As the bidding progressed, it became evident that the Flushing,
North Side and Central RR was interested in acquiring the property.
Finally, Elizur B. Hinsdale, agent for A. T. Stewart and the
Poppenhusens who owned the Flushing railroad, bid in the South Side
properties for $200,000. The road's liabilities totaled $2,554,225 and
its creditors included not only the various bondholders but also the
contractors Walker, Fairchild & Clark, who did the work at Bay
Ridge, the U. S. Rolling Stock Co. for lease of engines and cars, and
the Schenectady Locomotive Works, who built the last three locomotives
purchased.

The fact that there were no less than four important mortgages on the
road made the financial arrangements unusually complicated. In June 1867
a first mortgage of $750,000 had been made by the South Side RR in favor
of D. R. Floyd-Jones and Treadwell Ketcham as trustees. In September 17
another mortgage, this time for $2,250,000, was placed on the road to
secure funds for construction and equipment. In August 1871 the third
mortgage of $500,000 was made out in the name of Nicholas Wyckoff and
Elbert Floyd-Jones. The yield from this mortgage financed the laying of
the double track. The fourth mortgage in the amount of $60,000 was
assumed by the South Side RR from its subsidiary, the Far Rockaway
Branch RR, and had been executed in favor of Daniel D. Lord and John H.
Cheever both Far Rockaway capitalists. It is easy to see that
complicated court settlements and much litigation were required to
satisfy the conflicting claims of all four mortgages, plus the unsecured
claims of creditors.

As soon as the new purchasers took possession of the South Side road,
they made immediate efforts to maintain the high level of service under
the Shipherds. Isaac Barton, ex-superintendent of the Long Island RR and
superintendent of the united Flushing North Side & Central
railroads, now assumed the same post on the South Side RR. The
Poppenhusens on September 25, 1874 transferred their purchase to a new
organization of their own creation and changed the old name of the
company to "The Southern Railroad Company of Long Island." The
new owners resolved on a few other changes as well, namely, raising the
station platforms to eliminate the car steps and installing a physical
connection between the Southern and Central roads at Babylon (Belmont
Junction). It was rumored at this time that the Poppenhusens would soon
scrap the expensive dummy operation in Williamsburgh.

A month after the South Side RR changed hands, trouble broke out
again on the little Hempstead Branch. In September 1874 the Lackawanna
RR made overtures to secure the property and franchises of the New York
& Hempstead RR in the hope of consummating the master plan of making
Bay Ridge the great central coal depot whence Long Island and Manhattan
might be supplied. The investment proved excessively costly and the plan
was allowed to die.

In October the Brooklyn Trust Co. foreclosed its mortgage on the New
York & Hempstead RR. At least part of the reason for this was the
loss of patronage on the branch because of the competition of the Long
Island RR and the Central RR which entered Hempstead in January 1873.
There was simply not enough business in town to support three roads.
When the manager for the South Side RR heard of the bank's motion, he
ordered his trains to stop furnishing service as of October 27, 1874.
The New York & Hempstead was then advertised for auction on October
28.

On the night of the twenty-sixth, just before the service was
scheduled to be cut off, someone with an interest in the road, fearing
that the engine and cars would be confiscated and sold, sneaked into the
Hempstead depot, tore up the tracks and switches, ran the engine and
cars off the track, and completely looted the freight house and ticket
office of their contents.

On the morning of October 31 a Brooklyn judge granted an order
canceling all the bonds of the Hempstead & Rockaway RR. Robert
White, who had gotten the contract to build the road for $100,000, had
thus far received only $5000 and he now began an action to recover the
balance. He traced $80,000 of stolen bonds to Vandewater Smith, the
agent who had gotten him the contract and notified the court. Judgment
was ordered for the transfer of $80,000 worth of bonds to White and
$4000 damages in addition. Meanwhile at the auction sale of the road on
October 29, 1874 the whole was knocked down to the Brooklyn Trust Co.,
trustees of the bonds, for the benefit of the stockholders. These
gentlemen expected to make a satisfactory disposition of their property
as soon as the referee determined the validity of the disputed bonds.

About November 1 the road was reopened to traffic, the trust company
making arrangements with the Southern RR to furnish the equipment and
crews. The old engine, equipped with a new boiler after the explosion of
1871, was still in service but the two coaches had been repainted and
transferred to the Central RR.

Hardly four months later the Hempstead Branch again made news. The
week of January 31, 1875 opened dark and stormy over Long Island;
wind-driven rain pounded down intermittently and swelled what were
normally small rivulets into swollen streams. On the line of the New
York & Hempstead RR there were two such crossings, the Pine Brook at
Norwood and Schodack Brook just east of Woodfield depot. The latter
stream rose only a short distance north of the tracks; one fifteen inch
pipe carried the water under the track; the embankment here was about
nine feet high and the rainfall had backed against it a lake a few feet
deep.

On Wednesday evening, February 3, 1875, after the last scheduled
train had pulled into Hempstead, the crew, instead of laying over,
decided to go back to Valley Stream slowly to check on the storm damage
which had been getting worse all day. Accordingly, a party of seven,
consisting of the engineer, conductor, trackmaster, assistant
superintendent, fireman and trackman started their tour of inspection.
The train, consisting of the W. L. Wood and one car left the flooded
Hempstead depot at 8 P.M.

Near Woodfield station the trainmen approached Schodack Brook and
observed the large lake against the railroad embankment. The trains,
which were running backward for lack of a turntable at Hempstead, moved
over the brook slowly. The light coach passed over the spot, but the
engine suddenly collapsed through the roadbed and tumbled into the water
below, dragging the coach with it. The boiler on the engine exploded
with a roar, tearing a hole in the embankment and blowing the car to
pieces. Four of the crew were killed almost at once, and three injured.

The subsequent investigation disclosed that the dirt under the track
had been washed away sufficiently to fit a barrel into the space.
Evidently the frozen earth held up the track sufficiently to permit the
light coach to pass safely, but the heavier engine broke through. It is
interesting to note in passing that the Woodfield disaster is the oldest
railroad wreck on Long Island of which an actual photograph survives.

The accident shut down the Hempstead Branch altogether, there being
no other rolling stock. In June the court opened hearings on the bond
dispute between Smith and White, and when White was called to the stand,
some interesting testimony was elicited. White testified that he had
received only $5000 of the $100,000 promised to him to build the branch.
He alleged that Vandewater Smith borrowed the bond book of the company
at the time the road was completed in September 1870, took it to New
York, and when the book was returned to him, $80,000 in bonds had been
cut out. They were soon heard of in Wall Street and White found out upon
investigation that the bonds had been pledged with a well-known banker.
To protect himself, White then had taken the engine off the road,
whereupon the directors arrested him for stealing the locomotive, but he
was discharged. Subsequently, he commenced an action to recover the
bonds, the result of which was in his favor. It was then that the
Brooklyn Trust Co. had given a loan on the road, and shortly afterwards,
it fell into the hands of the South Side RR to operate. White, rather
than pay storage for his engine and cars, allowed them to use the
equipment. The South Side purchased the engine soon afterwards, but lost
it in the Woodfield disaster. The two passenger coaches, which White
originally purchased for $10,000 were exempted from the assignee's sale,
but were included in the sale of the trust company. When the
Poppenhusens assumed control of the South Side in November 1874, they
took the cars, repainted them and transferred them to their Central
Railroad of Long Island.

White, in retaliation, placed men at work to fence in the
Hempstead-Valley Stream right-of-way, for every foot of which he had
deeds in his name. A compromise between the Poppenhusens, new owners of
the South Side RR, and White was reached in June 1875. The former
purchased the disputed road, and proposed to open it immediately. On
June 28, 1875 trains of the Southern RR began service on the old New
York & Hempstead.

Only five months later another major wreck drew newspaper attention
to the Southern RR and its operations. On July 4, 1875 a train
consisting of the engine Montauk, a tender, a baggage car,
smoking car and passenger car left the Neptune House at Rockaway and at
1:40 P.M. reached Far Rockaway and took the siding there. Meanwhile, a
train of seven cars drawn by the engine Norwood left Bushwick at
12:30 P.M. and by the time it reached Valley Stream, was running ten
minutes late. When the train came to the turnout between Valley Stream
and Woodsburgh, the engineer and conductor decided not to wait in the
hope of passing the up train at Far Rockaway station turnout.

The crew of the Montauk, meanwhile, waited the mandatory
interval of ten minutes on the siding and the customary five minutes
further for the variation in watches. Then it started out. It so
happened that the switchman was absent that day, and the engine, after
clearing the switch, had to send back the conductor to lock the switch.
This cost about two minutes' delay, and then the engineer opened full
throttle to make time up the ascending grade toward Lawrence.

Beyond Far Rockaway station the track began a long curve through
Mott's Woods for about a half mile and then a straight stretch of a full
mile. The Montauk had barely gone into the woods over 1000 feet
when the Norwood was seen belching smoke dead ahead. Both
engineers blew "down brakes" (one sharp blast) and jumped. The
engines smashed into each other and when the dust settled, the tender of
the Norwood was mounted on top of the Montauk, and the
smoking coach and baggage car on the Bushwick train were telescoped
twelve feet into each other. One or two other passenger cars were
unbroken, but their platforms were crushed. Here occurred the worst loss
of life. In all, nine persons were killed, the firemen of both trains
and those standing outside on the platforms.

The inquest developed some interesting facts about conditions on the
Southern RR. The Poppenhusens had removed the telegraph office at
Woodsburgh in the course of lengthening the turnout there 100 feet. They
had also done little or nothing on track maintenance on the Rockaway
Branch. The rails had no "patent" connections (probably fish
plates) but were joined by old-fashioned chair fastenings the spiking of
which was often loose. A team of reporters walked the roadbed and
reported that the rails were often worn and occasionally split, and that
fully half the ties were rotten with only occasional good ones. The
impression was given that everything of the best went to the Central RR
of L.I. and that the Southern RR got what was left. The inquest verdict
blamed the Lawrence wreck on the two conductors, both of whom were
running on time not belonging to them. The railroad was censured for
having only two brakemen on a seven-car train, for altering the
time-table on a holiday, and for bad maintenance. Significantly, the
railroad restored the Woodsburgh telegraph station within three weeks.

As proof of the rotten condition of the roadbed, another train on
July 13, consisting of an engine and seven cars, was thrown on the sand
by spreading rails at a point one mile west of Far Rockaway, and after
bumping along on the ties, jogged to a stop. The locomotive plunged down
a five foot embankment, the tender followed, and the baggage car,
smashing past, sprawled across the rails at right angles to the line. No
one was hurt and the coaches were undamaged, but it was another grim
reminder that all was not well on the line. Much of the travel
thereafter took to the rival Long Island RR, people shunning the
Southern road as a death trap.

The Rockaway wreck had an unexpected side effect. The Southern RR,
which had seriously contemplated pushing eastward from Patchogue toward
Moriches, and had even begun moving material for that purpose, had to
call off the whole project. Instead, the ties and iron were reshipped
from Patchogue to Rockaway and three gangs of track layers were kept
constantly busy repairing the dangerous roadbed.

An important feature of the rehabilitation project was the extension
of the telegraph line from Far Rockaway station to the Neptune House
terminus. The telegraph service was entirely reorganized and new and
capable operators installed in the places of those found incompetent or
inattentive. With the improvement of the telegraph, a new code of train
signals was put into operation whereby the chief dispatcher at Bushwick
might know the movements of any train anywhere on the road. More
impressive still was the installation of vacuum brakes in place of the
old hand brakes on all the Southern engines, coaches and freight cars.

As if to insure the impossibility of another costly wreck on the
Rockaway Branch with its damaging publicity, elaborate and painstaking
track repairs were again prosecuted the following spring (May 1876) just
before the beginning of the beach season. A gang moved south from Valley
Stream down the peninsula removing every unsound tie and covering the
roadbed with a heavy loam about a foot deep with a layer of gravel at
the top. By this means the shifting sand was held in place and kept from
blowing out from under the ties. Steel rails were substituted for iron
ones all along the Rockaway Branch and on the main line. The managers of
the Southern were sparing no expense these days to bring back the former
high reputation of the system.

During 1874 and 1875 another powerful movement was at work in
Williamsburgh that would materially affect the operations and fortunes
of the Southern RR. When the road first entered Williamsburgh in 1868,
service from Bushwick Station to South Eighth Street ferry had been
maintained by teams of horses drawing individual coaches to the ferry.
Then, in 1869, the railroad, over powerful opposition, had mustered the
bare minimum of support necessary to insure the introduction of dummies
on Boerum Street and Broadway. To placate the opposition, the Southern
road had three of the newest and best dummy engines available
constructed for its use. To secure even further public support, the
railroad at great expense promised to use the much less suitable groove
rail for the standard T rail on its Williamsburgh track. Notwithstanding
all these gestures of appeasement, the opponents of steam operation
continued their agitation to drive the railroad from the streets.

One of the best arguments in their arsenal of weapons against the
road was the toll of human life taken by the dummies. It was easy to
pillory the railroad corporation as a souless monster ruthlessly
monopolizing the public streets and crushing out the lives of
golden-haired innocents under the wheels of its iron juggernauts. Such
stories were charged with emotional potential and could be profitably
exploited by politicians looking for an issue.

The facts were often quite different. The dummies, because of their
low power and gearing ratio, could go no faster than eight miles per
hour, and their bells and flagmen easily warned carriages and passers-by
of their approach. Their very slowness, in fact, made them an
irresistible attraction to boys of the neighborhood. Groups of lads
often ran after the freights as soon as they pulled out of the ferry
terminal, and grabbed the many handles and rungs on the cars for a free
ride up Broadway and Boerum Street. The brakemen, busy at the front and
rear of the train, were physically unable to watch each individual car
and the boys could play on the platforms and in the interiors
unmolested.

It was inevitable that eventually someone would be hurt. The first
dummy City of Brooklyn began running on July 31, 1869 and three
months later, on November 3, cut off the leg of a nine-year old boy who
was playing in Boerum Street. The little fellow, George Smith, was
attracted to the iron brace under the car, and in trying to catch it,
missed his footing and fell across one rail, the car wheel passing over
one leg. President Fox, though he felt no blame attached to the road,
visited the needy parents and presented them with a purse of $50. Again
on April 30, 1870 a child named Charles Fuchs, three years old, was
playing near the track, and when the dummy stopped to let a wagon pass,
grabbed the tension rod for a swing. The sudden starting of the dummy
threw the child on the track and the wheels beheaded him.

The company was horrified when a third accident occurred within two
months' time. On July 8, 1870 a twelve-year old boy named Louis Heim,
who had sneaked a ride on a flat car, fell between cars when he decided
to make a run from one to the other, and six wheels passed over his
abdomen. The superintendent of the road, Mr. Douglass, admitted no
culpability but freely offered to bear the expense of burial. At the
inquest it was noted that it was the custom of numerous boys living at a
distance from the ferries to steal a ride when on their way home, often
loitering about the ferry a half hour or more for the train to leave the
depot just to avoid walking home. When the cars started, the railroad
police chased them at the ferry, but the boys soon caught the train
along Broadway.

It is not known just what action the South Side RR took to avoid a
repetition of these accidents, but it must have been very effective
because we hear of no further casualties. Nevertheless, three such
accidents provided grist for the mill of the anti-steam people.
Indignation meetings were called and though poorly attended at first,
continued to make themselves heard. The residents of South Eighth
Street, which was only thirty feet wide and built as a residential
street, continued their campaign to get rid of the dummies. No one
seemed to mention the fact that the horse cars killed a far greater
number of people every day in Brooklyn than did the South Side dummies.

To further placate public feeling, and to avoid the criticism made
from time to time that their rails were breaking carriage axles and
overturning wagons, the South Side RR, in August 1870, purchased heavy
duty grooved rails for Boerum Street and Broadway. This was in
accordance with a resolution of the Common Council of May 29, requiring
grooved rails along Boerum Street. On September 16, 1870 these new rails
were delivered; all were seventy-pound groove and would cover the whole
distance to Bushwick depot. Installation of these new rails must have
been started immediately, for by October 1 all the old T rail had been
pulled up.

Oddly enough, in 1873 the South Side RR obtained permission from the
Common Council to lay a modified strap rail along South Eighth Street
and Broadway. The inner flange had to be built up with wood and to this
would be spiked an iron strip half an inch thick, creating an iron inner
flange and thus a virtual groove rail. Why this was done we are not
told; perhaps the Broadway rails received heavier wear because of joint
operation with the horse car companies.

Beginning with 1871 the campaign to get rid of the dummies gained
momentum. In February of that year the residents requested the Common
Council to repeal the permission granted to the railroad, alleging that
the signatures on the petition circulated by the railroad for the right
of using dummies were fraudulently obtained. The property owners
complained further about the smoke and gases and potential danger to
life and limb. A hearing was held on March 1 at which testimony
generally favorable to the railroad company was voiced, and again on
March 12.

The whole of the years 1872 and 1873 passed quietly without any
agitation to expel the dummies. Then in 1874 trouble broke out once
more. Apparently it was caused by the unwillingness of the South Side
company to put down a whole new pavement after replacing all its rails
to please the property owners. They sought relief from the State
Legislature but the railroad bested them at Albany. They then sued the
company in the name of one of the aggrieved property owners, who
recovered a judgment of $ 1 500. It was appealed and the Court of
Appeals confirmed the judgment of the lower court. Another suit for $500
was instituted with alike result. Inasmuch as the company had a mile and
a half of track, there was a cheerful prospect of being mulcted of a
million dollars. When the company went into bankruptcy in October 1874
the property owners considered it an evasion to end the suits.

Early in 1875 the embattled property owners of South Eighth Street
and Boerum Street found a champion to redress their alleged wrongs, one
Jacob Worth, an Assemblyman representing Williamsburgh at Albany. Worth,
recognizing an issue when he saw one, and realizing this could be an
important step on his political ladder, presented a bill in the Assembly
for the abolition of the Eastern District dummies. The Brooklyn Eagle
raised its powerful voice against the passage of the bill, insisting
that the property owners of one street had no right to deprive a whole
city of rail transportation and that the general welfare was paramount.

When the bill came up for hearing, the South Side RR argued that it
had spent about $50,000 for four dummy engines, had built a large and
handsome depot at South Eighth Street and would be subject to a loss of
at least $100,000 by the change. Worth pressed his charge that the
original petition was a fraud and that the property along the route had
halved in value. He claimed that the travelling public could easily be
accommodated in horse cars to the ferry. A resident testified that
fifteen or sixteen heavy rumbling trains disturbed peoples' sleep,
cracked walls, shook down ceilings, and loosened foundations.

On May 1, 1875 the bill was re-argued and ordered to a third reading.
On the eleventh the amendment to postpone the abolition of the dummy
till November 1, 1875 was accepted. When favorable passage of the Worth
bill seemed assured, the South Side RR made preparations to pull out of
downtown Williamsburgh. The freight depot was shut down immediately,
probably in May, and negotiations were begun with the Bushwick RR Co.
and the Broadway RR Co. to run their horse cars directly into covered
platforms at the Bushwick depot to enable South Side passengers to
continue their journey conveniently as was done at Grand Central Depot
in New York. The railroad contemplated the enlargement of the Bushwick
terminal, never too well equipped, by building a large new covered
passenger station, additional freight houses, and administrative
offices.

Beginning in February 1876 the Southern RR began physical
preparations to run all freight and most passenger trains into their
Hunter's Point terminal. Large gangs of men were set to work to
double-track the connection between Fresh Pond and Hunter's Point. New
ties and steel rails were installed, the trestle work across Maspeth
Creek and probably Jack's Creek filled in.

On February 28, 1876 the Southern RR formally announced to the press
the transfer of terminus from South Eighth Street to Hunter's Point, not
to Bushwick depot, significantly. Beginning this day the main passenger
trains ran to Long Island City and Bushwick permanently reverted to
branch status. By this change the Southern RR rid itself at one blow of
a whole series of petty irritations. For seven years the company had
been continually harassed by grumblers and whiners, as the press called
them. Subtle blackmail had been exacted for years, and later by the
annual necessity to "fix" petty politicians. Hardly a year had
gone by that hints had not come down from Albany as well, suggesting
"fees" to defeat the annual crop of anti-steam bills in the
Legislature. Even the ferry company, notwithstanding the large amount of
travel brought to them by the railroad company, was continually drawing
on the road for all sorts of privileges and accommodations which were
really of as great benefit to the ferry company as to the railroad.

On February 29, 1876 the South Side depot at South Eighth Street was
formally vacated, the last train pulling out on Saturday the
twenty-sixth, loaded with the portable property of the company.
Preparations were made to sell the stations and tear up the tracks. The
press of Brooklyn uniformly condemned the move, but gloomily hoped that
the horse car service would still induce travelers to either detrain at
Bushwick or try to reach it from the ferries. By May 1876 all the rails
from Bushwick to South Eighth Street had been torn up and the streets
repaved.

The trains were gone from Bushwick but a short while when a general
outcry arose among the merchants and business men of the Eastern
District. Pressure for the removal of the trains had come from home
owners and a few business men had been inveigled into supporting them.
Suddenly, the realization of what the total loss of train traffic from
the interior of Long Island would mean seems to have struck the business
people, and a slow reversal of attitude began to spread through
mercantile circles. In December 1876 certain merchants had the
effrontery to circulate a public petition through the Eastern District
addressed to the Southern RR, requesting it to relay its tracks to South
Eighth Street but the railroad met the gesture with the stony silence
and contempt that it deserved.

With the spring of 1876 the old South Side RR lost its identity as a
separate railroad and became merged into the common railroad system of
Long Island. In January 1876 rumors were current that the Poppenhusens,
proprietors of the Flushing & North Side, Central and Southern roads
were negotiating with the stockholders and directors of the Long Island
RR, the acquisition of which would give them a united Long Island
railroad. By February 1 it became certain that some sort of agreement
had been reached between President Havemeyer of the Long Island RR (Charlick
had died in 1875) and the Poppenhusens, for a stockholder began a suit
to prevent Havemeyer from selling shares to Poppenhusen. It became known
that a sufficient number of shares had changed hands to give Poppenhusen
control, and that the action would be submitted to the directors in
March for ratification.

For two months all was quiet; then in May it was announced that the
Long Island RR, financially the strongest of the four roads, had been
selected by the Poppenhusen management to lease the Flushing & North
Side, Central and Southern Railroads into one large operating group. The
rental for the Southern was said to be $173,250 for the first year and
to increase in six years to the maximum of $233,450; the term of lease
was to be for ninety-nine years. Vast benefits were expected, for,
instead of fighting each other, the different roads would henceforth
cooperate. Great economies would be achieved as well by the abandonment
of duplicate and triplicate services, closing of needless depots, and
abandonment of duplicate trackage. Under such a new system Poppenhusen
felt confident that a better arrangement for the carrying of freight and
for the arrival and departure of passenger trains could be effected.

Insofar as the Southern RR was concerned, these changes came about
almost immediately. Uniform passenger and freight rates were established
at once. The last Southern RR timetable appeared in February 1876; the
following issue of June 1876 listed the road as the "Southern RR of
L.I. Division." A further loss of identity occurred when the
Southern and Long Island railroads were physically connected, enabling
Long Island RR rolling stock to run on the Southern road and vice versa.
In the first week of June 1876 the two roads were connected at
Springfield and the Long Island branch to Rockaway across the meadows
discontinued immediately in favor of the Southern route. Conversely, the
Southern line between Jamaica Station and Springfield was discontinued
in favor of the Long Island's route from Rockaway Junction (now
Hillside), and the second track taken up. The Southern RR stations at
Locust Avenue, Berlin, Springfield and Ocean Point were closed. The
Southern Railroad's line from Jamaica to Hunter's Point became the main
line for passenger service since it was straighter and fully double
tracked, while the old Long Island RR route via Winfield was relegated
to freight service. At the Fresh Pond station a separate track was laid
so as to render the route to Bushwick entirely independent of the main
line. This was done to obviate the usual wait at the junction as was the
previous custom.

The fact that nearly all the Southern RR trackage was preferred by
the management was a compliment to the designers of the original road.
Rightly speaking, the history of the South Side RR proper closes at this
point, but we must advance four years ahead of our story to follow the
road to its full extinction as a separate legal entity.

In October 1877 there were rumors of financial trouble, and within a
month the Poppenhusens went into bankruptcy. The causes of the disaster
were primarily overextension of railroad facilities and inexperienced
management. Of the three railroads merged the Long Island RR alone paid
its way, but the Central and Southern systems both failed to earn even
their operating expenses. Poppenhusen tried to improve the Southern road
by bettering the physical plant constantly, and obtained the funds
through notes given to Drexel, Morgan & Co. (after 1895 J. P. Morgan
& Co.) These bankers extended Poppenhusen credits of $1,200,000 in
all, for which 35,000 shares of stock and $912,000 bonds were pledged as
security.

The rental charges for the Southern and Central systems were more
than the Long Island RR could pay, for the simple reason that the latter
two roads failed to earn these sums. In addition there were judgments to
be paid, representing claims originating before the merger. Herman
Poppenhusen and his father Conrad were wealthy men but their credit had
been stretched to its limit. When the interest on the various bonds fell
due in the fall of 1877, the Poppenhusens defaulted and the complicated
structure, so laboriously built up, collapsed. On November 3, 1877 the
united railroad system went into receivership and the court appointed
Colonel Sharp of the Railroad Department of Drexel, Morgan & Co. as
receiver. Sharp terminated the leases of the Southern and Central
systems, and these roads, deprived of the artificial financial support
of the Long Island RR, promptly went into bankruptcy.

The operation of the unified railroad system under the receiver
continued for 1878 and 1879; then in June 1879 the holders of the South
Side's second mortgage bonds foreclosed and it was bid in by the
bondholders; again in July 1879 the first mortgage bonds were foreclosed
and knocked down to an agent of Drexel, Morgan & Co. By these sales
all claims against the road were shut out and the receiver was free to
do as he pleased.

How can we account for the collapse of the South Side RR after all
the optimistic predictions of the first few years? The causes are not
hard to seek:

South Side
Rail Road of Long Island Pass 1872
Archive: Art Huneke

The excessive cost of the Bushwick outlet. The South Eighth Street
terminal could not and did not originate enough traffic to offset
the high cost of installing and maintaining the terminus. In the
beginning the breaking up of each train into car units, each drawn
by six or eight horses, must have been a very expensive operation,
and the South Side must have been compelled to maintain a stable of
horses almost as large as the average horse car line of that day.
Later, the four steam dummies cost $10,000 each and exposed the
company to a whole series of costly judgments for damages of all
kinds. Finally, we can only guess how much of the company's money
went for thinly disguised political payoffs.

We must remember, too,
that the company was forced into laying the Bushwick road twice
over, once with T rail and once with grooved rail, and each time a
mile and a half of pavement had to be replaced. Even in terms of
1870 labor costs this must have been an expensive business.

The extension into Hunter's Point: To effect an outlet to the East
River, a point of pride with the South Side RR, they built not only
the enormously costly Williamsburgh terminus, but the duplicate
Hunter's Point terminal. The company had to buyout the New York
& Flushing RR's track at $40,000 a mile and then completely
rebuild the road. Then, after all this expense, Oliver Charlick
prevented the company from running any revenue trains over the new
extension for many months by cutting off access to the property and
refusing to release the Long Dock.

The double tracking of the road. The installation of a second
track on any road is virtually equivalent to building it twice
over, for it necessitates doubling the width of the graded area
and doubling the size of all the bridges and culverts. When one
considers that the South Side RR was running at its peak only nine
trains a day each way, it is obvious that the second track was a
luxury not strictly justified by the traffic. To gratify a foolish
vanity, the South Side RR was forced to assume a third mortgage of
half a million dollars, the interest on which could only add to
the burden of fixed charges on the road.

Competition of other roads. From the opening of the road in
October 1867 to June 1872, the South Side RR enjoyed the advantage of
a monopoly of the traffic on the south side and to Rockaway. The
first serious inroad into the South Side's prosperity was the
opening of the Long Island Railroad's Rockaway Branch in June 1872.
Oliver Charlick's route was slightly shorter and more direct, and
from Cedarhurst to Far Rockaway exactly paralleled the South Side
tracks. After the July 1875 wreck at Lawrence much of the traffic
went via the safer Long Island road. With the opening of the Central
RR of Long Island in January 1873, the Southern had to compete for
the traffic of Hempstead and Babylon. Thus by 1873 the South Side
could be sure only of the patronage of the smaller south side
villages west of Babylon.

As soon as the receiver took over the management of the South Side
RR, he abandoned the Hempstead Branch as an economy measure, the only
such part of the South Side system to be sacrificed. On Wednesday
evening, April 30, 1879 the last train ran from Hempstead to Valley
Stream. The South Side RR's valuable main line, a big money maker
because of the summer trade, continued to bear the Southern RR label
only until December 1879, when the owners, Drexel, Morgan & Co.,
reorganized it as the "Brooklyn & Montauk RR," which was
then leased to the Long Island RR. Finally, in March 1880, the receiver
issued an order erasing the road's identity completely. As of that
month, the whole Southern RR was, in the future, to be referred to
simply as the Montauk Division of the Long Island RR and so it remains
to this day. In October 1889 the Brooklyn & Montauk RR was formally
merged into the Long Island RR and the subsequent history of the old
road becomes the history of the Long Island R.R.

Roster of Equipment

ENGINES

1, 2, 3, Hinckley, 1865. The Hinckley records state that three
engines numbered 1, 2, 3, were sold to the South Side R.R. Nothing
further is known about them.

PEWIT, Danforth & Cooke; Arrived August 1869; Built originally
for the Central RR of New Jersey. Built 1860.

FIRE FLY, Danforth; later LIRR 19.

A. J. BERGEN, Danforth; about April 1870; later LIRR 17.

FRANCIS B. BALDWIN, Grant; late 1869 or early 1870.

A. McLEAN, make unknown; mentioned once in July 1871, perhaps
bought in 1870. Possibly a rented engine from the U.S. Rolling Stock
Co.

SOUTH SIDE, Rogers (?), probably spring of 1872; later LIRR 26.

SPRINGFIELD, Manchester; probably spring of 1875; later LIRR 27.
Built for the Southern Ry. as No.9.

MASSAPEQUA, Grant; arrived August 1870; weight 35 tons; made speed
run of sixty-five miles per hour in September 1870.

MERRICK, The Charles Fox, renamed to Merrick by the
Shipherd management. LIRR 16

NORWOOD, make unknown; delivered probably about 1872, involved in
July 1875 wreck.

ISLIP, Brooks; delivered probably April 1873; later LIRR 14.

PATCHOGUE, Brooks; delivered April 1873; later LIRR 15.

MONTAUK, Schenectady; delivered May 1873, Renamed the Creedmoor by
the Poppenhusen management as early as September 1878; later LIRR
32.

RENTED ENGINES

CANTON, owned by Louis Broad, the contractor on the New York &
Hempstead RR at Bay Ridge; taken by the South Side RR until Broad's
widow, Martha, sued the railroad for repossession, and recovered it
in April 1874. During periods of peak traffic the SSRR rented both
engines and cars from the United States Rolling Stock Co.

ESSEX, Probably rented from the United States Rolling Stock Co.
Mentioned as derailing at Richmond Hill in July 1872.

DUMMY ENGINES

CITY OF BROOKLYN, Schenectady Loco. Works; placed in service on
July 31, 1869. Used until February 1876.

CITY OF BRESLAU, Schenectady Loco. Works.

NAMES UNKNOWN, three built also by the Schenectady Locomotive
Works; No. 1 built April 1870. No. 2 in Sept. 1870, No. 3 in May
1871, and No. 5 in June 1873. A dummy engine sold on December 28,
1871, in the yard of the Bushwick depot.

COACHES

The builders and number series of the passenger coaches purchased
between 1867 and 1873 are unfortunately unknown. For the final large
purchase made in 1873 we have some slight information: Sixteen
coaches were bought from the New Haven Car Co. These had elaborately
frescoed ceilings, panels of satinwood and seats upholstered in
velvet. The undercarriage was provided with double truss rods and
truss beams, also self-coupling Miller platforms.

NEW YORK AND HEMPSTEAD R.R.

ENGINES

WILLIAM L. WOOD, built by Grant in 1870. The boiler blew up in
1871 and the whole engine was badly wrecked in the accident at
Norwood in February 1875, but the locomotive was rebuilt.

COACHES

Two coaches built by Jackson & Sharp in 1870. Both were taken
over by the South Side RR in September 1874 and transferred to the
Central RR of Long Island.

RAILROAD STATIONS

South Eighth Street: Built September 1868 and opened for
service November 4, 1868. In July 1869 the station must have been
adequate for two or three trains, for, in a letter of complaint, we
read: "...the intersection of South Eighth Street and Kent Avenue
is impassable...by reason of the frogs and switches and the crossing
rails of the South Side RR. The company has abolished the sidewalk and
occupy the space with trucks and wagons unloading directly into their
depot."

In April 1872 the depot was enlarged by an extension of the roadbed
on heavy framework resting on piles to the bulkhead line of the river,
nearly 100 feet in length, and giving standing for several additional
cars.

In a description of the waterfront in 1872 we read: "The South
Side Railroad depot is deserving of mention; it was originally a depot
building two stories high, in which are sitting rooms, freight and
ticket offices on the first floor for the accommodation of passengers,
while on that above are the several offices of the corporation. Early in
summer a covered depot to shelter the cars was erected and has just been
completed. This rests upon piles and partly extends over the ferry
piers."

South Eighth Street station was abandoned on February 29, 1876, the
last train pulling out on the twenty-sixth. All rails were removed
during May 1876. Part of the old depot buildings were still standing in
1922.

Bushwick: Opened July 18, 1868. The South Side RR used the old
Schenck farmhouse of Revolutionary vintage for its office; a large
marshalling yard was laid out but no depot was erected during South Side
days. No effort was made to improve Bushwick station until it became the
new terminus in March 1876. The company then planned a large covered
passenger depot, additional freighthouses and side tracks to permit
horse cars to drive into the covered station area and unload passengers.
In 1876 toward the end of South Side days, the Eagle remarked: "The
depot, as at present it appears, is an unprepossessing object, and were
it not for the tracks, trucks and railroad carriages in the vicinity,
might be mistaken for a dog kennel, for a dog kennel would most unjustly
suffer by the comparison. It is the meanest of many mean buildings in
the neighborhood and its size dwarfed by an ordinary railroad car; it
has brown weather-beaten boards; in front of it is a little platform,
and alongside this the train stands. Altogether it might do for a
wayside station..."

Changes in management postponed the planned improvements, but
rebuilding began in May 1877 under the Poppenhusens.

Hebbard's: Appears as a station only on the timetables of May,
June and August 1870. There was probably no depot building. Named after
the Hebbard farmhouse on Flushing Avenue at about Fifty-second Street.
This district was known at the time as Metropolitan or East
Williamsburgh. The name is often misspelled "Hibbard's."

Fresh Pond: Nothing is known about the date of erection of the
station; it does not appear on the timetable until June 1869. The
original wooden building was still standing in 1923.

Glendale: First appears on the timetable of June 1869. Nothing
is known about the presence or absence of a station.

SSRR
Glendale Station c. 1869
Archive: Art Huneke

SSRR
Glendale Station with Tower #9 (later "GW") is visible in the
distance View E 1906 The tower was placed out of service in 1908.
Archive: Dave Keller

Richmond Hill: First appears as "Clarenceville" on
timetables of July 1868. Station building put up during April and May
1869, partly with funds raised by the citizens, and many shade trees
were added to beautify the grounds. Beginning July 25, 1869 President
Fox and the directors permitted the building to be used as a chapel on
Sundays. The name of the station was changed to Richmond Hill in October
or November of 1871. The original depot building survived until the
grade crossing elimination at Jamaica Avenue in 1923-24.

Van Wyck Avenue (Berlin): First appears on the timetables of
June 1869. A station building was erected in July 1870. Name changed to
"Berlin" on timetable of May 1871. Discontinued in June 1876
by LIRR on assuming the South Side RR management.

Jamaica: The original South Side depot was located between the
Long Island RR on the north and Beaver Pond on the south, or, in
present-day terms, on the north side of Beaver Street at 151st Street. A
newspaper comment of November 1869 remarked on the poor appearance of
the station and the area; the approaches were poor and the station
itself seemed a temporary affair with a hut beside it for handling
freight. The company declined to do more unless assisted with public
funds. In September 1871 a public subscription was under way and a
larger building planned. As built, it was 22 x 48 (14 feet high inside)
with two rooms, ticket office, etc. The cost was roughly $2000 of which
$700 came from the village donations. On Christmas morning of 1871 the
new building was opened and the original sold for $180 to a resident.

In May 1877 the Long Island RR moved the South Side station into its
yard just west of the Long Island station. In the third week of July
1877 all trains ran into the Long Island depot at Jamaica, and the South
Side facilities abandoned.

Locust Avenue: First appears on the timetable of June 1869
presently Locust Manor station at Baisley Blvd. Abandoned by LIRR June
1876 on taking over the South Side R.R. management.

Springfield: One of the original stations. Located at
Springfield Boulevard east of the road and north of the railroad. There
was probably a station building here. The settlement lay to the north
near the Merrick Road. Station abandoned by LIRR in June 1876 on their
taking over the South Side R.R. management.

Foster's Meadow (Rosedale): First appears on the timetable of
May 1870. Located at the present Hook Creek Blvd., just east of the
present Rosedale station. The station building was begun on June 20,
1871 and finished about a month later. Village name changed to Rosedale
in 1892.

Valley Stream: First appears on the timetable of June 1869. A
wholly new community personally developed by Electus B. Litchfield of
Babylon, who acquired the land in the fall of 1868. Post Office opened
April 1870. Plans were laid for a depot in August 1869, and in the
summer of 1870 several prominent residents offered to put up half the
cost of a station, but then reneged. The men who were at work on the
building at the time rioted at the news, and to restore peace, the South
Side RR paid the whole cost of the station itself. The building was
located between Third Street and Rockaway Avenue on the south side of
the tracks.

Pearsall's (Lynbrook): One of the original stations. First
"Pearsall's Corners" until April 1875, thereafter simply
Pearsall's. Located between Hempstead Avenue and Forest Avenue on the
north side of the railroad. In January 1870 the citizens voted to change
the name of the village to Pearsallville. In 1893 the village changed
its name to Lynbrook.

Rockville Centre: One of the original stations. No details of
the depot are mentioned in old sources. Station located on the east side
of Village Avenue and north of the railroad. Place originally was
referred to as Rockville after the "Rock" Smiths who settled
there, but by late Sixties name Rockville Centre was in use.

Baldwins: One of the original stations; appears as
Baldwinville and Baldwinsville beginning in 1869 and continuing through
1871. On the table of July 1872 it is first listed as Baldwins and so
continues into the Twentieth century. Depot building erected by
townspeople in February 1868, a "commodious building and creditable
to the place." During the summer of 1868 the village name was
officially changed to Foxborough to honor President Fox, but this did
not last. Later, about 1890, Austin Corbin, LIRR President, pushed
through a change of name to "Milburn," but after his death the
name of Baldwin was restored.

Freeport: One of the original stations. There is no account of
the building of the depot in any of the old newspapers, but construction
probably took place in 1867-68.

Merrick: No account is preserved concerning the erection of a
depot, yet this station must have received special attention, for both
President Fox and Superintendent White lived here. There was also
located here a siding, engine house, and freight house. Between 1869 and
1876 several trains terminated their runs at Merrick station.

SSRR
Merrick map 1873
Archive: Art Huneke

Bellmore: Charles W. Hayes, a real estate promoter of Williams
burgh, owned in 1869 considerable land in what is today Bellmore.
Through his influence with President Charles Fox, the new station of
Bellmore was erected in October 1869. By December the wilderness was
cleared and streets had been opened and graded. The timetable of May
1870 is the first to list the new station.

Wantagh: One of the original stations on the road. From the
beginning in 1867 down to 1891 the station is listed as Ridgewood. In
July 1875 the residents subscribed a sufficient amount of money to erect
a depot and the site was donated by a Mr. F.R. Rogers. The village has
changed its name four times. It was first referred to as Jerusalem
South, but came to be constantly confounded with Jerusalem Station. Then
the name was changed in the Seventies to Atlanticville but it was soon
discovered that a village in Suffolk County already bore this name (now
East Quogue). Again the name was changed to Ridgewood, but by this time
Ridgewood in Queens County had begun to use that name. Finally, in
desperation, the residents in May 1891 changed the village name to
Wantagh, after the sachem of the Merrick Indians in 1747, and so it has
remained.

Massapequa: The locality was originally known as South Oyster
Bay, because that township owns the narrow strip on the south shore
enclosing the present-day villages of Seaford and Massapequa. This was
one of the original stations in 1867. In April 1870 a German real estate
society laid out 1500 acres and named it Stadt Wuertemberg, a boom made
possible by the railroad. The depot is supposed to have been donated by
the Floyd-Jones family, who owned all the land in the area.

Amityville: The depot building was erected in
November-December 1868. The village was one of the original stations on
the road.

Lindenhurst: Thomas Wellwood, a real estate promoter, bought
the village land in 1861, and was joined by Charles S. Schleier in
October 1869, who renamed the new development after his native Breslau
in Prussia and boomed it as a German colony. The village first appears
on the timetable of September 1, 1868 as Wellwood and so remains through
1869. In May 1870 the station appears as Breslau. In June 1891 the Hon.
Benjamin F. Tracy, owner of much of the shore-front acreage,
successfully lobbied a petition through the Post Office Department to
change the name to Lindenhurst, and the railroad station was so changed
on July 14, 1891.

Babylon: Original terminus of the road. During the summer of
1868 the village succumbed to a brief fad and renamed itself Seaside
(and so appears on the July and September 1868 timetables) but the old
name returned in 1869. The old South Side station was replaced with a
new structure in 1881.

SSRR Babylon Station c. 1881 Archive: Art Huneke

Bayshore: First appears under its old name of Penataquit on
timetable of May 20, 1868. In July 1868 the name Bay Shore first appears.

SSRR Bay Shore Station c. 07/1868 Archive:
Art Huneke

Islip: First appears on the timetable of May 20, 1868 as the
terminal of the road and so remains until September 1 timetable. Between
December 1, 1868 and June 1869 a second station was maintained at Islip
Centre, probably the present Brentwood Road, but on August 19, 1869 the
railroad loaded the little 20 x 30 feet depot on a flat car drawn by the
engine Pewit and carted it eastward, leaving Islip the sole station in
the village.

SSRR Islip Station c. 05/1868 Archive: Art Huneke

Club House: First appears on the timetable of May 1870. Inside
the present Bayard Cutting Arboretum grounds, on the west bank of Great
River and south of the Montauk Highway. The station was maintained for
the South Side Sportmen's Association for many years, and stood midway
between the present Great River and Oakdale stations.

SSRR Club House Station c. 05/1870 Archive: Art Huneke

Oakdale: First appears on the timetables of December 1, 1868.
Nothing is known about a depot.

SSRR Oakdale Station c. 1868 Archive: Art Huneke

Sayville: First appears on the timetable of December 1, 1868.
In December 1868 an engine house was completed at the station. In
October 1869 a freight house and wooden station platform were erected at
Sayville station.

SSRR
Sayville Station c.1868
Archive: Art Huneke

Bayport: First appears on the timetable of December 1, 1868.
In March 1869 the local residents built the depot building themselves
with materials supplied by the railroad.

SSRR Bayport Station c. 12/1868
Archive: Art Huneke

Blue Point: First appears on the timetable of May 1870. The
Bayport post office was located in Blue Point in 1870. The South Side
Signal of June 27, 1891 says the station was opened February 1, 1870 and
was closed June 1, 1882.

SSRR Blue Point Station c. 01/1870 Archive: Art Huneke

Patchogue: Depot building put up in July-August 1869 by
William Homan, the road's master carpenter. It was 220 feet in length
"large and commodious and in appearance an honor to the company and
an ornament to the place."

SSRR Patchogue Depot c. 1869
Archive: Art Huneke

ROCKAWAY BRANCH

Cedar Grove: Appears only once on the company timetables: June
1869. Older name of Hewletts.

Hewletts: First appears in October 1869. Nothing is known of
the depot here. During the Nineties it was for a time called "Fenhurst."

Wood's Station or Woodsburgh (Woodmere): First appears as
Wood's Station on table of October 1869, but thereafter as Woodsburgh.
The village was laid out in 1869 by Samuel Wood, who built the depot,
houses, streets and a hotel called the Pavilion. In the early nineties
there was a movement to change the village name to "Glenhurst"
but nothing came of this.

Ocean Point (Cedarhurst): First listed on table of October
1869. No depot building existed at first, but in 1873 Mr. Thomas E.
Marsh, owner of several hundred acres of land at Ocean Point, cleared
and laid out a village, and built the railroad station in July 1872.
Station abandoned by the LIRR in June 1876 when it took over the South
Side R.R. management.

Lawrence: First listed on timetable of June 1869. The village
was developed at the time of the railroad extension and was named for
Newbold and Alfred Lawrence, its promoters. No details are known about
the depot.

Far Rockaway: First listed on the timetable of June 1869. No
information on depot facilities in contemporary newspapers.

Beach, or Beach House, or South Side Pavilion: First listed in
May 1870. On the timetable of July 1872 the name is changed to South
Side Pavilion. In 1876 this seaside terminal building was sold by the
railroad. The old depot appears to have been located very near the water
at about Beach Thirtieth Street.

Eldert's Grove: First listed in July 1872. The recent Hammel's
station at Beach Eighty-fourth Street operated until the end of LIRR
operation.

Holland's: First listed July 1872. The present Holland's
station at Beach Ninety-Second Street.

Sea Side House: First listed July 1872. The present Seaside
station at Beach 103rd Street.

Atlantic Park: First appears in May 1875, being listed after
the South Side Pavilion station, and continues to the end of South Side
RR days. Probably at a point along Atlantic Avenue midway between the
present Far Rockaway and Edgemere stations.

HEMPSTEAD BRANCH

Bridgeport: At Franklin Avenue, Malverne. No station building
here

Norwood: Hempstead Avenue at Cornwell Avenue. No station
building here.

Hempstead: On west side of Greenwich Street midway between
Front Street and Peninsula Boulevard. After abandonment of the station
in May 1879, the depot building was converted into a skating rink, but
it burned to the ground in early July 1888.

ADDENDA

[A typed slip of paper labeled "ADDENDA" was included with
the book.]

A recently discovered list of liens against the South Side R.R. as
of September 1874 mentions two locomotives by number and name:

#16 the "Rockaway"

#17 the "Islip"

The locomotive "Montauk", rebuilt after the wreck of
July 1875, emerged from the shops in September 1875 as the
"Glendale"